Justice Clarence Thomas defends the Supreme Court and warns against “destroying our institutions.”

Justice Clarence Thomas blames the media for jeopardizing "any faith in the legal institutions"

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas defended the Supreme Court and warned against “destroying our institutions because they don’t give us what we want, when we want it,” as the Supreme court faces backlash over their controversial decision to allow a Texas law that bans abortion to go into effect.

“I think the media makes it sound as though you are just always going right to your personal preference. So if they think you are anti-abortion or something personally, they think that’s the way you always will come out. They think you’re for this or for that. They think you become like a politician,” Thomas said during the 2021 Tocqueville Lecture at the University of Notre Dame on Thursday, the Washington Post reports.

“That’s a problem. You’re going to jeopardize any faith in the legal institutions,” he added.


Thomas also criticized judges for “venturing into areas we should not have entered into” which is part of why the nomination process for federal judges with lifetime appointments like himself, is so contentious, The Associated Press report.

“The court was thought to be the least dangerous branch and we may have become the most dangerous,” Thomas said. “And I think that’s problematic.”

Thomas’ defense of the court comes days after fellow Justice Amy Coney Barrett expressed concerns that the public may be seeing the nation’s highest court as a partisan institution following a series of high-profile decisions.


“My goal today is to convince you that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks,” Barrett said during a speech at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center on Sunday.

She also blamed the media, saying, “the media, along with hot takes on Twitter, report the results and decisions. … That makes the decision seem results-oriented. It leaves the reader to judge whether the court was right or wrong, based on whether she liked the results of the decision.”