Justice Clarence Thomas says Roe leak like 'infidelity,' may lead to Supreme Court's demise

Justice Clarence Thomas said Friday that the leak of the draft majority opinion on abortion was “tremendously bad” and has permanently damaged trust within the Supreme Court.

Thomas made the comments at a conference for Black conservatives in Dallas, Texas. He said that the leak was a symptom of a broader decline in American institutions.

“I wonder how long we're going to have these institutions at the rate we're undermining them, and then I wonder when they're gone or destabilized what we will have as a country and I don't think the prospects are good if we continue to lose them,” he said, according to Politico.

He suggested the leak of the Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion had created an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust.

“When you lose that trust, especially in the institution that I'm in, it changes the institution fundamentally,” Thomas said.

“You begin to look over your shoulder. It's like kind of an infidelity – that you can explain it but you can't undo it.”

Nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, Thomas is the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court with a tenure of over 30 years.

The opinion’s leak has led to protests at the homes of conservative justices. A fence was also erected the Supreme Court.

Among other topics, Thomas also took the opportunity to defend the Senate’s refusal to consider Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee for the vacancy left by the late Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016.

He said the Senate was only following a policy of not confirming a Supreme Court nominee in the last year of a president’s term – which was articulated by then-Sen. Joe Biden when he was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, reports Politico.