Rumors of Justice Clarence Thomas planning to retire are false, said Carrie Severino, who clerked for Thomas on the Supreme Court. She is president of the Judicial Crisis Network and offered her remarks on Wednesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Dylan Gwinn.
Mansour asked about a claim forwarded by the Washington Post‘s Robert Costa that the Trump administration is preparing for Thomas’s possible retirement. Hugh Hewitt later said he had been told that Justice Samuel Alito is considering retirement.
Severino said, “Every year, around this time, we start hearing some of the same rumors. You heard them last year, the same ones. From my perspective — and I know Justice Thomas well, I clerked for him — I can tell you [with] one hundred percent certainty, that rumor, there is nothing to it.”
“I hear [these rumors] regularly every year or so, and that gives me serious pause as to the rumors about Justice Alito, as well, because it seems like it’s the same sources. People love to speculate, especially around the end of the Supreme Court term, but most of the time I think it turns out to be nothing more than rumor.”
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Severino added, “Justice Thomas, in particular, he’s like the leader of the conservative wing of the court. Justice Alito has had some on-fire opinions this year. I just feel like both are really are the top of their game. I would find it hard to imagine either of them saying, ‘Okay, it’s time to hang up my spurs.'”
Severino concluded, “When you think of the liberal [justices], none of them is going to want to retire if they could possibly help hold out.”
Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.
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