Supreme Court’s Strains Intensify as Term Nears End

“Supreme Court justices take pride in a collegiality that transcends their philosophical differences. As the court’s term heads to its close, with pending cases that could remake the presidential election and ethical questions dogging its members, that politesse might be all the nine have left in common,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Over the past month, internal fissures and external pressure have intensified at the court. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, speaking at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, said she sometimes weeps in her chambers after the conservative majority issues one of its polarizing rulings.”

“Justice Clarence Thomas, who might have written some of the opinions Sotomayor had in mind, told a judicial conference in Alabama that he and his wife, Ginni, a conservative activist who encouraged Republican officials to overturn the 2020 election, have faced nastiness and lies. Thomas, who has drawn criticism for accepting gifts from wealthy friends, on Friday disclosed two additional vacations he accepted in 2019 from his longtime benefactor, the Dallas developer and Republican megadonor Harlan Crow.”