The Supreme Court on Monday told Kansas and Louisiana to pound sand concerning their attempts to defund Planned Parenthood through Medicaid. This is an altogether good thing, especially for the women of Kansas and Louisiana. But there is a bit in the decision that's worthy of further examination. One of the lasting legacies of the late George H.W. Bush, the great warrior-statesman and famous bipartisan moderate bipartisan, is that he visited upon the generations the presence of Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, now in his 28th largely silent year on the bench at the Supreme Court.

As it happens, Thomas disagreed with his brethren on whether or not to hear the Kansas and Louisiana cases, which isn't a surprise. But, in his opinion, he went zooming off into the fever swamp to find a rationale. From the Washington Post:

“What explains the court’s refusal to do its job here? I suspect it has something to do with the fact that some respondents in these cases are named ‘Planned Parenthood,’” wrote Justice Clarence Thomas...“It is true that these particular cases arose after several States alleged that Planned Parenthood affiliates had, among other things, engaged in ‘the illegal sale of fetal organs’ and ‘fraudulent billing practices,’ and thus removed Planned Parenthood as a state Medicaid provider,” Thomas wrote.

While both Chief Justice John Roberts and Newest Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined with the Court's liberals, nevertheless it's quite something that a veteran justice of the Supreme Court, as part of the reasoning for his dissent, has included a debunked smear emanating from the most notorious ratfcking operation in the professional conservative ratfcking apparatus.

It's ratfckers all the way down. Or up. Depending on how you're looking at things.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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