The court is expected to weigh in next session on same-sex marriage, which it legalized in 2015

Settled legal precedent in the US is not “gospel” and in some instances may have been “something somebody dreamt up and others went along with”, the US supreme court justice Clarence Thomas has said.

Thomas – part of the conservative supermajority that has taken hold of the supreme court over Donald Trump’s two presidencies – delivered those comments Thursday at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in Washington DC, ABC News and other outlets reported. His remarks preceded the nine-month term that the supreme court is scheduled to begin on 6 October.

“I don’t think that … any of these cases that have been decided are the gospel,” Thomas said during the rare public appearance, invoking a term which in a religious context is often used to refer to the word of God. “And I do give perspective to the precedent. But … the precedent should be respectful of our legal tradition, and our country and our laws, and be based on something – not just something somebody dreamt up and others went along with.”

  • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca
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    2 hours ago

    When one must make the choice between established precedent or a luxury motorhome, obviously precedent isn’t gospel for Clarence Thomas

    "He regularly slips into his speeches his love of driving it through the American heartland — ‘the part we fly over.’

    Imagine Clarence rolling up into Gary, Indiana in this thing to see “The Real America”: