Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas says rising threats against the judiciary have forced major security changes, making it far harder for justices to participate in public activities outside the courthouse.
Speaking in Florida, Thomas pointed to growing physical and cyber threats as the Supreme Court seeks millions in additional security funding from Congress.
The security concerns now are much different from the way they were when I first became a circuit justice,” Thomas told the conference, which was organized by the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals. “That’s really one of the big changes since I’ve been on the court — that it’s become very, very dicey.”
Thomas, the most senior associate justice and a member of the court’s conservative wing, made similar remarks earlier this year at an event at American University in Washington. He had been scheduled to attend that event in person, but switched to a remote appearance. He explained the change at the time as a response to security concerns.
Thomas said then that he didn’t want to “endanger anyone by my mere presence.”
“The reason we’re sitting here, I think, unfortunately, shows a direction — and rather than sitting with these good people — shows a direction that we have traveled … demonstrates how far we have come,” he said at the time. “We have come a long way in the wrong direction.”
For years, judiciary officials and others have warned about a dramatic increase in the number of threats aimed at federal judges and prosecutors. The danger was driven home for the Supreme Court in 2022 when a person attempted to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh following the leak of a draft decision from the court overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Thomas’ full remarks to the judicial conference were mostly breezy and avoided controversy or much discussion of the current court. He noted, as he has in the past, that he misses the justices he served with when he joined the Supreme Court in 1991. He talked about the significance of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and professed his love for barbecue — pulled pork, specifically.
While he ripped on the nation’s capital briefly, his remarks were far less acerbic than two years ago, when at the same conference, he described Washington as a “hideous place.”
Thomas, whose wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas is an Omaha native, briefly discussed his support for University of Nebraska sports but noted he didn’t get to games as much as he wanted to these days.
“And as I said, because of the security concerns, I’m not able to move around as much as I used to,” he said.
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