In 2012, the College of the Holy Cross bestowed an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree upon U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ('71).

Justice Thomas has failed to studiously and consistently avoid the appearance of a potential conflict of interest regarding his hearing and reviewing cases and petitions before the Supreme Court that directly involve the political activism of his spouse, Virginia Thomas.

Notably, Justice Thomas did not recuse himself from participating in a Supreme Court decision that directly affected the legal status of White House records pertinent to the ongoing congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021 attempt to overturn the November, 2020 presidential election.

Justice Thomas was the lone dissenting vote in this decision, arguing that these records should not, or did not need to be, released.

As the public has now learned in full (as of March 2022), no fewer than 29 text messages were exchanged between Mrs. Thomas and the then-White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, in the period between November 10, 2020--when candidate Joe Biden was on the verge of being confirmed as having won Electoral College vote for U.S. President--and January 6, 2021, when an armed and violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to block Vice President Mike Pence from performing his constitutional duty to certify the Electoral College votes.

In 21 of these messages, from her, Mrs. Thomas advanced the lie that the election had been "stolen," promoted conspiracy theories about how it "had" been, and urged Meadows and President Trump not to give up their efforts to overturn and/or block the election results with various baseless legal challenges. In one message, she refers to having spoken about these issues with "her best friend," a term she and Justice Thomas have each used frequently over the years to refer to each other in published interviews and profiles.

Whether Justice Thomas actually knew of his spouse's communications with the White House on matters that were all-but-certain to come before the Supreme Court is not, in fact, the issue. And, of course as a U.S. citizen, Mrs. Thomas is fully entitled to participate in political action and advocacy however she wishes, within the limits of the law.

Justice Thomas is, however, rightly held to a high standard: he must avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, in the eyes of a reasonable person.

He has clearly failed in that responsibility. As a graduate of Holy Cross and Yale University Law School, and as an experienced attorney and jurist, Justice Thomas has no excuse for not fully understanding the importance of this standard, and no excuse for failing to meet it.

He is no longer a worthy recipient of an honorary degree from the College of the Holy Cross, and the institution should state so publicly and withdraw the honor, as soon as possible.