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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas came out quickly to ask the first questions of the Supreme Court’s new tenure on Monday, signaling that he would continue to actively participate in pleadings even if the court returns to in-person hearings.
“Lawyer, you seem to be complaining that Tennessee is pumping water from Mississippi, but you admit Tennessee doesn’t come across the border into Mississippi, do you?” Thomas asked a Mississippi lawyer after completing his opening statement in a water dispute.
The question and its timing were remarkable as the tribunal adopts a new hybrid argument format. Ahead of the pandemic, judges interrupted lawyers with a barrage of quick questions of no particular order. Thomas clearly expressed his distaste for this system and hardly ever spoke.
But when the court was forced to work remotely last year, it began asking questions in descending order of seniority, a system Thomas participated in in the same way as all of his fellow judges.
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas attends Amy Coney Barrett’s swearing-in ceremony as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on the South Lawn of the White House on October 26, 2020 in Washington, DC . Thomas asked the first question of the 2021-2022 mandate of the Supreme Court. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
(Photo by Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
SUPREME COURT JUDGES RETURN FOR ORAL IN-PERSON ARGUMENTS WHEN FACING IMPORTANT CASES
The new system begins with an extended period of rapid questioning followed by a more orderly opportunity for individual questioning by each judge at the end. But Thomas didn’t wait for the structured time and instead went straight into the questioning in a way he almost never did before the pandemic.
The first case in the Supreme Court’s tenure on Monday is a groundwater dispute between Tennessee and Mississippi. Mississippi claims Tennessee essentially steals groundwater by pumping too much from a shared aquifer.
Thomas plagued the Mississippi lawyer with several more difficult questions after his premiere.
“Let’s say it was a lake and Tennessee was pumping water from its side of the lake. Couldn’t you say that technically it was drawing water from the Mississippi,” Mississippi logic asked. Thomas to the lawyer of this state. “Couldn’t Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri make the same argument that every time you pump you cause them similar problems?” “
Former Thomas Clerk and President of the Judicial Crisis Network, Carrie Severino, said Thomas’s assertive nature in this first argument of the court’s 2021-2022 term reflects the new 6-3 Conservative majority.
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“This is Judge Thomas’ moment as the intellectual leader of the Court and therefore appropriate to hear him ask the first question of the new term,” Severino said.
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