Justice Antonin Scalia had health issues that were only known to the public after his sudden death in 2016. And Justice John Paul Stevens, who retired at the age of 90, recently announced that he had made the decision to resign after confused dissent from the judiciary led to a visit to his doctor and news that he had suffered a mini-stroke. News of Thomas` hospitalization came just before the Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings Monday on the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the court, whom President Biden appointed to replace outgoing Justice Stephen G. Breyer. If confirmed, she would be the first black woman on the ground, but her confirmation would not change the ideological balance in the square. Thomas is the second black judge on the court and one of six conservatives currently on trial. Other judges, however, have been less open about his health. Judge Anthony Kennedy`s 2005 heart stent was only revealed after it had to be repaired a year later. Times have changed. Today`s conservative jurists have adopted the populist anti-expertise stance of the broader conservative movement and are far less inclined than conservative judges of the past to prioritize health care or value expertise.
Although Chief Justice John Roberts advised respect for “politicians” at the beginning of the pandemic, the majority sidelined it when Barrett arrived on the bench. Since then, the Court has paid little attention to the health consequences of its decisions. For example, the court blocked OSHA`s “vaccine or test” mandate rule, although it did not disagree with OSHA`s conclusion that the warrant would save 65,000 deaths. Some judges have even gone so far as to say that preventing COVID-related deaths may no longer be a compelling state interest. And in his draft opinion that Roe overturned, Judge Alito showed little or no concern about the damage to women`s health his decision could cause. In fact, nowhere in the opinion does he even suggest that the Constitution could require states to allow abortions if necessary to save a pregnant person`s life or health. Although he didn`t say, “It`s none of my business,” he might as well have done it. On occasion, the Supreme Court justices themselves have asked one of their representatives to tell a judge that it was time to resign.
The first such forced resignation seems to have taken place in 1870. Until then, there were no pensions for judges, and some could not afford to retire. These are turbulent times for the Supreme Court. Since Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court in October 2020, justices have issued a series of unprecedented decisions that have reshaped health care law and policy in ways that affect the health of all Americans. These decisions include orders blocking the moratorium on evictions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, halting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration order requiring major employers to require vaccinations or testing and masks, lifting a lower court injunction allowing the prescription of drugs for telemedicine abortions, and several state COVID containment measures as violations. against religious freedom. Now, the draft opinion disclosed by Justice Samuel Alito in Dobbs v. Jackson Women`s Health Organization indicates that the court will soon strike down Roe v. Wade. In June, it is also likely that it will limit states` ability to regulate firearms. The Supreme Court announced Sunday that Justice Clarence Thomas had been hospitalized since Friday night “after flu-like symptoms,” according to its press release.
The senior member of the Supreme Court “has been diagnosed with an infection and is being treated with intravenous antibiotics,” the statement said, providing only minimal details other than “his symptoms disappear, he rests comfortably and expects to be discharged from the hospital in a day or two.” A Supreme Court spokesperson told CNN that Thomas` illness “is not related to COVID” and that “the judiciary does not have COVID.” This is partly because to this day, judges prefer to keep these issues to themselves as much as possible. But even the judges weren`t as public in the past as they are today, which had to do with writing books and interviews, not to mention appearing in Oscar-nominated documentaries or having feature films about their lives. But, White added, the action that his colleagues saw as “perverting constitutional conception.” The constitution, he noted, does not give other judges the power to withdraw another judge`s vote. The court said at the time that Thomas` “symptoms are subsided” and “he expects to be discharged from the hospital in a day or two,” leading to speculation about Thomas` health after the court failed to issue updates in the following days. As fate would have it, it was Taft whose health initially deteriorated and forced his resignation. Taft`s successor, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, still regarded Holmes as an outstanding judge. He watched Holmes take full notes on the oral arguments, just as he had done 20 years earlier, when the two men were both associate judges before Hughes ran for president. Thomas is the longest-serving justice on the Supreme Court and was confirmed to the Court in 1991.
The Supreme Court has a history of exercising restraint when it comes to the health of judges. Although the court regularly released updates on the health of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, NPR noted in 2019 that this represented a change from the court`s historical practices. Justice Antonin Scalia`s health problems, for example, were not revealed until after his death, and the court only revealed for a year that former Justice Anthony Kennedy had had a heart stent inserted. It also took the court more than a week to announce in 2020 that Chief Justice John Roberts was in the hospital overnight after a fall, and only did so after The Washington Post received a tip about the incident, the Post reported. Justice Charles Whittaker, appointed at the age of 56, was paralyzed by indecision. when he had the last word in court. In 1962, after five years and a nervous breakdown, he resigned, overwhelmed by the responsibility of the office. The court provided no additional information about the infection that brought Thomas to the hospital, other than to say that he responded to intravenous antibiotics. There was no indication of the severity of the infection or what caused it, but the court said Sunday night that he is expected to be discharged from the hospital in a day or two.
Little is known about Justice Thomas` hospitalization, which is part of a court secrecy story (GRID News) No. The court did not explain why Thomas` hospitalization was not announced earlier, but it is not always clear when judges will receive medical treatment. The judges returned to personal arguments in October after more than a year and a half of telephone conversations. However, the courtroom is still closed to the public due to the pandemic. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, 73, has been hospitalized with an infection since Friday and is expected to be released in the coming days, the court said. If the judges agree to speak to groups, it is usually left to the group to publicize the event. Last week, for example, as usual, the court did not release the fact that Roberts and Thomas spoke in Atlanta.