Report: Ginni Thomas Is Closely Connected to More Than Half of the Groups That Lobbied Her Husband to Overturn Roe v. Wade
Yelena Dzhanova Business Insider
Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. (photo: Susan Walsh/AP)
Slightly more than half of the parties that filed amicus briefs pushing for the end of the 1973 landmark case that legalized abortion in the United States has political connections to her, The Guardian reported on Friday.
Thirty-eight out of 74 — or 51% — of amicus briefs produced in support of a decision to overturn Roe v. Wade were produced by right-wing, religious, and conservative groups and individuals with ties to Justice Thomas, the analysis found.
"The Thomases are normalizing the prospect of too close an association between the Supreme Court and those who litigate before it," Melissa Murray, a law professor at NYU, told The Guardian.
The analysis, which was conducted by a nonpartisan public interest group, shows a pattern of various overlapping connections between the people who advocated for overturning Roe v. Wade and Justice Thomas.
Thomas, for example, serves as the board director for the lobbying arm of the Council for National Policy, a conservative networking organization that supports "traditional western values," per one of its webpages.
Several people who filed an amicus brief in support of the overturn are affiliated with CNP, the analysis found, including Tony Perkins, who serves as the president of the Family Research Council — a group that lobbies in part against abortion — and former President Donald Trump's impeachment lawyer Jay Sekulow.
The results of the analysis come months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe w. Wade.
Fears about the possibility of the Supreme Court doing so have cropped up since May after Politico published a leaked draft opinion that foreshadowed the overturn. In the draft opinion, Associate Justice Samuel Alito characterized abortion as "egregiously wrong from the start." At the time Politico published the article, Justice Thomas stood with Justice Alito, along with Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, forming a majority preliminary vote.
And in June, the Supreme Court did overturn Roe v. Wade, with Justice Thomas voting alongside the conservative block to do so.
By overturning Roe, the Supreme Court has left the legality of abortion in the hands of individual states.
