The leftists manufacturing a Clarence Thomas scandal need a lesson in American government

Clarence Thomas is an invincible American.

He refused to let the isolation and poverty he was born into define his life.

He will not let racists put limits on him.

He would not allow the Left to claim ownership of his mind or loyalty because they opposed secession.

They were also enemies of freedom, only from another direction.

The Liberals never forgave him for denying them their patronage and their lease.

They knew they couldn’t count on George HW Bush to support his view of abortion rights when he nominated him to the Supreme Court in 1991.

So they tried to block her confirmation at all costs, using sexist accusations against her when questions about abortion failed to derail her nomination.

Law was the weapon of the separatists.

The media is leftist. Character assassination is a non-violent way to keep cynicism in line.

That’s what “cancel culture” is about, and it works – but not on Clarence Thomas, and not just because he’s brave enough to stand up to the pressure.

Even the bravest man can be crushed by a superior force.

We’ve seen it time and time again in universities, corporate America, and the media.

If your payroll organization is not as brave as you, your enemies can destroy you by intimidating your superiors.

But a Supreme Court judge has no superior. No one is in a position to tell Clarence Thomas what to do.

He does not work for Congress and is not accountable to any regulatory agency.

This is by design: If Congress or another organ of the federal government could set rules for judges and punish them for failing to follow them, the judiciary would not be independent.

The latest press campaign against Thomas has accused him of failing to disclose gifts and financial deals with his billionaire friend Harlan Crowe, as well as mixing the names of companies he owns with other financial statements. is in

What leaves the angry publicity, however, is that Thomas’s compliance with any disclosure rules is entirely voluntary. A law that cannot be enforced is a suggestion at best.

This manufactured scandal is an opportunity to dispel a liberal myth and teach a lesson about where sovereignty lies in our country.

The myth is that there is some abstract entity called the federal government that is above each of its individual branches.

Just as individuals must obey rules made by regulators and laws passed by Congress, the president and Supreme Court justices are also accountable to impartial administrators.

Thus, Thomas must comply with federal guidelines on financial disclosure.

But the fact is that Supreme Court justices and the president are literally above the law, in the sense that federal law is something that comes from Congress.

The power of the law lies in the penalty that can be imposed on those who violate it.

The Constitution allows only one type of punishment for the President and Supreme Court Justices in their official capacity, and that is impeachment.

Impeachment, as we were reminded twice during the Trump years, is a political process, not a fair legal process.

The choice of whether or not to impeach is a political one, as is the decision to convict or not.

The impeachment of a Supreme Court justice would be subject to partisanship as there have been four presidential impeachments in our history — Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump twice.

Lawmakers wield enormous power over lower federal courts and executive branch officials under the president.

And after leaving office the President becomes a private citizen again subject to every obligation imposed by Congress.

Supreme Court justices, on the other hand, serve until they resign or die, unless one day they are impeached and removed.

That day won’t come any faster as liberals who despise Clarence Thomas find fault with his paperwork.

Justice Thomas is immune from their demands as long as they fail to win the seats they need in the legislative branch to impeach him.

The Constitution recognizes that the rules in a free country ultimately depend on the people and their will – their votes – not on an elite’s idea of ​​individual law.

Yet liberals know that controlling public perception is the way to direct public opinion.

The Supreme Court, like the President, is not a creature of Congress or agencies set up by it, and is checked by the people themselves through the legislative judiciary and the executive, impeachment, elections.

This is why an ideological monopoly on the media is so important – why Fox News must be dismantled and any sort of right-wing views labeled hate or misinformation.

Clarence Thomas answers to no one but the political power of the people.

The question is whether people ultimately answer to the media or whether they judge for themselves and have the freedom of mind that Justice Thomas exemplifies.

Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review.