Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas won’t lead a constitutional law course at George Washington University as planned, a college spokesperson told HuffPost, following student protests calling for his termination.
An online petition to offer Thomas the boot received greater than 10,000 signatures within the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to roll back abortion rights in late June. Yet George Washington Law stood by Thomas, whilst student activists urged classmates to contact the varsity’s dean demanding the justice’s removal.
Thomas’ precise reasons for opting out should not clear; he didn’t reply to a request for comment. His co-instructor, Gregory Maggs, said in an email to students that Thomas was “unavailable,” in response to the GW Hatchet.
A George Washington University spokesperson put it the identical way, saying in a press release that “Justice Thomas informed GW Law that he’s unavailable to co-teach a Constitutional Law Seminar this fall.”
“The scholars were promptly informed of Justice Thomas’ decision by his co-instructor who will proceed to supply the seminar this fall,” the statement said.
Thomas and Maggs had been teaching together for greater than 10 years, in response to the Hatchet.
“For those of you continue to all in favour of taking the course, I assure you that we’ll make the most effective of the brand new situation,” Maggs, a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, reportedly told students in his email.
A George Washington course catalog describes the seminar, titled Leading Cases in Context, as a chance to review “a more complete story of quite a lot of leading cases than is normally presented in Constitutional Law courses.”
“Opinions in leading Supreme Court cases normally reveal only a part of a fancy story,” the outline says. “Although they discuss the facts immediately resulting in the litigation, they often don’t fully expose the motivations of the litigants or the social and political context of legal controversies. The opinions also cannot describe the reactions to the Court’s decisions or the choices’ subsequent influence.”
Protests erupted nationwide when the Supreme Court issued its ruling last month on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
Justice Samuel Alito penned the bulk opinion. Thomas concurred, adding his suggestion that the high court reconsider other cases that cemented various other civil rights in America, resembling the precise of same-sex people to marry.
Demonstrators showing up outside conservative Supreme Court justices’ homes led Congress to swiftly direct increased security funding for the court and their members of the family. On the Thomas household, the justice’s wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, inspired critics of her own as reports have emerged detailing the extent to which she attempted to help former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
