Samuel Jackson Rips 'Uncle Clarence' Thomas for Risking Interracial Marriage in Roe Reversal
Mary Papenfuss HuffPost
Samuel L. Jackson. (photo: Samuel L. Jackson/AP)
27 June 22
The same rationale the conservative court employed to reverse the 1973 decision on abortion rights could now be used to eliminate the right to same-sex marriage, contraception and interracial marriage, which was protected in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia ruling, lawmakers and scholars fear.
Jackson bashed Thomas as “Uncle Clarence” in a Friday night tweet, referring to the excessively servile Black character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s pre-Civil War novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
How’s Uncle Clarence feeling about Overturning Loving v Virginia??!!
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) June 25, 2022
The Roe decision suggested that the legal underpinnings of the constitutional protection for abortion were weakly based on arguments that have supported other Supreme Court cases guaranteeing various rights, including the right to contraception and same-sex and interracial marriage.
In a solo concurring opinion Friday, Thomas suggested that the court should “correct the error” by withdrawing granted rights now protected under the “substantive due process clause” of the 14th Amendment.
Justice Thomas concurs, saying overruling Roe isn't enough. "For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell." That's right to privacy, contraception, marriage equality,etc
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) June 24, 2022
But Thomas specifically named only the rights to same-sex marriage and contraception. He side-stepped the Loving case, which, if overturned as Roe was, could threaten his own interracial marriage to Ginni Thomas.
Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff behind the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on same-sex marriage, said Friday that Thomas omitted Loving v. Virginia on his list of top court decisions to “reconsider” because it “affects him personally.”
That “affects him personally, but he doesn’t care about the LGBTQ+ community,” Obergefell said on MSNBC’s “The Reid Out.”
Though some Thomas supporters criticized Jackson for what they called a “racist” attack on the justice, the actor’s Twitter followers mostly applauded the dig — and the issue:
Damn! Samuel Jackson, hot Damn!
— save democracy🇺🇦🟥 (@defenestrate161) June 25, 2022
way to tell him! https://t.co/b00cVHvRzF
🎯
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) June 25, 2022
NEW: Samuel L. Jackson just called out Clarence Thomas’ hypocrisy for calling to overturn same-sex marriage and contraception but not interracial marriage, which was decided on the same grounds: “How’s Uncle Clarence feeling about Overturning Loving v Virginia??!!”
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) June 25, 2022
How’s Uncle Clarence feeling about Overturning Loving v Virginia??!!
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) June 25, 2022
Exactly. pic.twitter.com/1VR0zRzdRH
— Hypocrisy Now. (@Hypocrisy_45) June 25, 2022
How’s Uncle Clarence feeling about Overturning Loving v Virginia??!!
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) June 25, 2022
Well seeing as marriage isn't a constitutional right, it wouldn't matter if it was overturned. If "marriage" was left up to the states how many do you think would make any type of marriage illegal? Come on Samuel, you're smarter than this.
— Ol' Broken Paratrooper (@OlBroken82nd) June 25, 2022
Odd that it's the only one he didn't specify in his list of precedents that should be revisited.
— Schrödinger's Zen...(or Roger) (@RWNJ_) June 25, 2022
That's weird, right?
