Justice Clarence Thomas said the Supreme Court has been changed by the leak of a draft opinion earlier this month suggesting the overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Thomas joined the Supreme Court in 1991 and has since advocated for Roe to be overturned. He spoke about the leak while at a conference Friday evening in Dallas.
“When you lose that trust, especially in the institution that I’m in, it changes the institution fundamentally. You begin to look over your shoulder. It’s like kind of an infidelity that you can explain it, but you can’t undo it,” he said.
Chief Justice John Roberts has ordered an investigation into the leaked draft and noted that it does not represent the final position of the court.
Thomas also said it was beyond “anyone’s imagination” that even a line of a draft opinion would be leaked, let alone an entire document.
“Now that trust or that belief is gone forever,” he continued.
At one point, Thomas said “I do think that what happened at the court is tremendously bad…I wonder how long we’re going to have these institutions at the rate we’re undermining them”.
While discussing the protests occurring outside justices’ homes in Maryland and Virginia, Thomas said “You would never visit Supreme Court justices’ houses when things didn’t go our way. We didn’t throw temper tantrums”.
“I think it is … incumbent on us to always act appropriately and not to repay tit for tat,” he added.
Protests around the country, specifically in Washington, D.C., and New York City, will continue over the weekend.