Clarence Thomas says that he and his wife 'are focused on defending liberty.' Defiant Clarence Thomas fires back

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas – his impartiality under attack from liberals because of his attendance at a meeting of conservative donors sponsored by the Koch brothers and his wife’s tea party activism – struck a defiant tone in a Saturday night speech in Charlottesville, Va., telling a friendly audience that he and his wife “believe in the same things” and “are focused on defending liberty.”

Delivering the keynote speech at an annual symposium for conservative law students, Thomas spoke in vague, but ominous, terms about the direction of the country and urged his listeners to “redouble your efforts to learn about our country so that you’re in a position to defend it.”


He also lashed out at his critics, without naming them, asserting they “seem bent on undermining” the High Court as an institution. Such criticism, Thomas warned, could erode the ability of American citizens to fend off threats to their way of life.

“You all are going to be, unfortunately, the recipients of the fallout from that – that there’s going to be a day when you need these institutions to be credible and to be fully functioning to protect your liberties,” he said, according to a partial recording of the speech provided to POLITICO by someone who was at the meeting.

“And that’s long after I’m gone, and that could be either a short or a long time, but you’re younger, and it’s still going to be a necessity to protect the liberties that you enjoy now in this country.”

Thomas spoke at the closing banquet for the symposium, which was sponsored by the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group. Several hundred law students, professors, Federalist Society staffers and guests were in the audience for his speech, which was closed to the press.

It was the first time Thomas has spoken out – at least in a semi-public setting – about the mounting controversies that have swirled around him and his wife, Virginia Thomas, who goes by “Ginni” and who was in Charlottesville with her husband.

The justice’s critics have argued that his attendance at, and speech to, a private January 2008 gathering of major conservative donors sponsored by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers in Palm Springs, Calif. and his wife’s political activism have compromised his position on the court.

The liberal group Common Cause suggested in a January letter to the Justice Department that Justice Thomas’s connection to conservative donors may have been grounds for him to recuse himself from the Supreme Court’s ruling last year in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, the court’s decision striking down decades-old restrictions on political spending.

Thomas sided with the conservative majority in the decision, which allowed corporations to fund political ads and contributed to an explosion in advertising campaigns funded with anonymous contributions in the 2010 midterm elections.

At conferences like the one in Palm Springs in 2008, the wealthy Koch brothers, Charles and David, and their operatives have raised millions of dollars for groups that air such ads, POLITICO has reported.

Thomas’s expenses for the conference were paid for by the Federalist Society, sponsor of Saturday’s symposium, according to his financial disclosure forms. Tax filings show that the Kochs, through their family’s charitable foundations, have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the society, though that represents only a fraction of the group’s overall budget, which comes from hundreds of donors.

Ginni Thomas has long been active in conservative politics, but had a relatively low profile until recent months.

She first attracted attention for founding Liberty Central, a non-profit group that she envisioned as forming a bridge between the conservative establishment and the anti-establishment tea party movement.

POLITICO reported that the group received a $550,000 infusion from two anonymous contributions while the Supreme Court was deliberating over the Citizens United case.

Ginni Thomas stepped down from Liberty Central in December after controversy over a message she left on a voice mail requesting an apology from Anita Hill, the woman who accused her husband of sexual harassment during his confirmation hearings for the high court in 1991.

Last month, Thomas had to amend 13 years’ worth of financial disclosure reports to indicate the sources – though not amounts – of his wife’s income after Common Cause raised questions about his omission of the information.

More recently, both Thomases were criticized after POLITICO revealed that Ginni Thomas had started a lobbying group that bills itself as using her “experience and connections” to help clients “with “governmental affairs efforts” and political donation strategies.

Earlier this month, 74 House Democrats signed a letter asking Thomas to recuse himself from any cases related to last year’s Democratic healthcare overhaul bill partly because of his wife’s lobbying.

“From what we have already seen, the line between your impartiality and you and your wife’s financial stake in the overturn of health care reform is blurred,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote to Justice Thomas, citing his failure to report his wife’s income in his disclosure filings over the past decade.

Some legal experts have dismissed the demands that Thomas recuse himself.

Richard L. Hasen, a law professor at the University of California Irvine who sharply criticized the Citizen United decision, nonetheless called Common Cause’s letter to the Justice Department, which also mentioned fellow Justice Antonin Scalia’s attendance at a 2007 Koch retreat, “an unwarranted attack on the ethics of the Justices.”

Leonard Leo, a Federalist Society executive and longtime friend of the Thomases who sits on the board of Liberty Central, told POLITICO on Sunday that Thomas’s remarks were similar to those he’s delivered at past events.

“I’ve known the Thomases for over 20 years, and have heard the Justice speak dozens and dozens of times,” said Leo, who moderated a question-and-answer session with Thomas after Saturday’s speech. “What he said last night about both his wife’s integrity for standing up for what she believes in and the duty of all of us to stand up for our liberty, even in the face of the most personalized attacks, is no different from what he has said in countless other appearances going all the way back to 1991, and probably even before that.”

Thomas’s message was not geared towards attacking critics, Leo said, but rather “motivating young law students to stand up for what they believe in, even if that means being reviled and having to pay a price for it.”

Another person affiliated with the Federalist Society who’s frequently heard Thomas speak at its events and was at the dinner Saturday said the Thomases “couldn’t have been more happy and fun-loving with all of us,” spending about an hour both before and after the event talking to students and posing for pictures.

Thomas’s reference to sharing values with his wife was “in the context of a discussion about character and the virtues of honesty, duty and hard work - not law or the Constitution,” said the person, who added Saturday wasn’t the first time Thomas has “been critical of highly politicized and dishonest attacks aimed at character assassination rather than substance.”

But the source who provided POLITICO with the recording said Thomas on Saturday seemed bothered by the criticism of him and his wife, alluding to it unprompted several time during the question-and-answer with a crowd that gave him several standing ovations.

“The criticism of his honor … and his wife obviously struck a nerve,” said the source.

At one point Thomas recognized his wife in the audience and suggested she was being targeted for her beliefs, telling the audience, according to the recording, “my bride is with me, Virginia Thomas. And some of you may know her. But the reason I bring that – specifically bring it – up is there is a price to pay today for standing in defense of your Constitution.”

Thomas said his wife “started her organization to give 24/7 every day in defense of liberty,” and said he shared her principles.

“We are equally yoked, and we love being with each other because we love the same things. We believe in the same things,” he said. “So, with my wife, and with the people around me, what I see, I’m reinforced that we are focused on defending liberty. So, I admire her and I love her for that because it keeps me going.”

Thomas also warned in dire terms about what he said was the High Court’s straying from an originalist interpretation of the Constitution. Without mentioning the Democratic healthcare overhaul, Thomas singled out the Commerce Clause – which is at issue in the lawsuits challenging the overhaul that are expected to make their way to the Supreme Court – as an example of an area in which the Supreme Court had strayed, said the source.

“I do think that these are fundamental changes that are going on now, and I think they’re big changes,” Thomas said, explaining he wasn’t sure whether they are “reversible in any way. … But they’re so big, that I think they’re worth trying. And I think the [Constitution] is so important, it’s worth defending.”

Emphasizing the importance of the Supreme Court, Thomas said “It’s not a game with me. It doesn’t deal with any ego stuff with me. This is about our country. And one of the things I want to do is I want to go to my grave knowing that I gave everything I had to trying to get it right.”

Thomas closed by citing a quote from Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. – “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends” – which Thomas said he has on a sign hanging in his chambers.

“And what I think is important for you all, is that when you see people standing in defense of what’s right, that you make sure that your voice is not remembered as one of the silent,” Thomas said. “Because there’s gonna be a day when you’re gonna look around and you’re gonna look at your kids and your grandkids and they’re gonna ask you a question: What happened to the great country that was here when you grew up, and why isn’t it here now, and what did you do?”