Activist Supreme Court Justice’s wife in the media spotlight….

Conservative“Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

IS at issue….

Judges on lower federal courts are bound by a code of conduct that requires recusal for conflicts of interest, or even if their impartiality might be reasonably questioned. But Supreme Court justices are permitted to decide for themselves whether recusal is appropriate in a given case.

In Clarence Thomas’s three decades on the bench, he has never stepped aside from a case due to a real or perceived conflict of interest resulting from his wife’s political activities, according to a letter sent this month to him by several progressive groups, including the court expansion advocacy group Take Back the Court.

“It is striking that in more than 30 years on the Supreme Court you have never — not once — recused yourself from a case because of a conflict of interest presented by professional political activities of your wife, a prominent Republican strategist who has been involved in some of the most controversial matters to come before the Court,” the March 8 letter states.

The Supreme Court’s public information office did not respond to a request for comment.

The previously unknown detail about Ginni Thomas’s participation in the pro-Trump rally emerged from an interview she gave to the conservative media outlet The Washington Free Beacon.

She told the outlet she attended the Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse but got cold and left before former President Trump took the stage at noon. Dubbed “Stop the Steal,” the event promoted Trump’s lie that he won the 2020 election, which fueled the deadly insurrection later that day….

…

Critics say that in light of his wife’s political activities, the justice should have recused himself from that case and future matters tied to the Jan. 6 attack.

“The clear conflict of interest was driven home by the fact that you were the only member of the Supreme Court to side with Trump by publicly dissenting from the Court’s decision to allow the Committee to obtain the records in dispute,” read Take Back The Court’s letter sent to Clarence Thomas this month….

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image…Slate