Justice Thomas on SCOTUS decisions: People need to ‘live with outcomes we don’t agree with’

Justice Clarence Thomas said people must “live with outcomes we don’t agree with” or the judiciary would be threatened, citing recent Supreme Court events as “one symptom of that.”

While speaking to judges and lawyers at the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference in Atlanta on Friday, Thomas said he was growing concerned about declining respect for governmental institutions and the rule of law.

While he did not directly refer to the leak of the draft opinion striking down Roe v. Wade, first published by Politico, he referred to the “unfortunate events” of this week.

“It bodes ill for a free society,” he said, adding that the court “can’t be an institution that can be bullied into giving you just the outcomes you want.”

Thomas noted that as a society, “we are becoming addicted to wanting particular outcomes, not living with the outcomes we don’t like,” Reuters reported.

He said he was particularly worried about the “different attitude of the young,” who may not show governmental institutions the same respect as older generations.

Thomas, the Supreme Court’s longest-serving justice and one of the more conservative members, has previously called for Roe v. Wade to be overturned. He said Friday that his views were not linked to the recent controversy, however, he emphasized that important decisions he believes were wrongly decided should be corrected.

“We use stare decisis as a mantra when we don’t want to think,” he said, referring to the concept of precedent, according to The Washington Post.

His statements come after it was revealed in March that his wife, Ginni, sent several text messages former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows urging him to find a way to keep former President Trump in office leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

This story was updated at 10:00 a.m.