{"id":134009,"date":"2025-09-26T13:06:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T21:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/09\/26\/clarence-thomas-tells-us-how-he-really-feels-about-totally-stupid-precedent\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T13:06:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T21:06:57","slug":"clarence-thomas-tells-us-how-he-really-feels-about-totally-stupid-precedent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/09\/26\/clarence-thomas-tells-us-how-he-really-feels-about-totally-stupid-precedent\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarence Thomas Tells Us How He Really Feels About \u2018Totally Stupid\u2019 Precedent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well if I find it doesn\u2019t make any sense \u2026 I think we should demand that, no matter what the case is, that it has more than just a simple theoretical basis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[I]f [it\u2019s] totally stupid, and that\u2019s what they\u2019ve decided, you don\u2019t go along with it just because it\u2019s decided.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/i>Justice Clarence Thomas<\/a>, in remarks given during an appearance at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, where he was asked how he balances stare decisis with originalist viewpoints<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong> He went on to liken the Supreme Court\u2019s reliance on precedent to adding more cars to the back of a long train, saying, \u201cWe never go to the front to see where it\u2019s going. You could go up to the engine room and find that it\u2019s an orangutan driving. And you\u2019re going to follow that? I think we owe our fellow citizens more than that.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Clarence Thomas Tells Us How He Really Feels About \u2018Totally Stupid\u2019 Precedent<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ed. note<\/u>: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well if I find it doesn\u2019t make any sense \u2026 I think we should demand that, no matter what the case is, that it has more than just a simple theoretical basis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[I]f [it\u2019s] totally stupid, and that\u2019s what they\u2019ve decided, you don\u2019t go along with it just because it\u2019s decided.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 <\/i>Justice Clarence Thomas<\/a>, in remarks given during an appearance at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, where he was asked how he balances stare decisis with originalist viewpoints<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong> He went on to liken the Supreme Court\u2019s reliance on precedent to adding more cars to the back of a long train, saying, \u201cWe never go to the front to see where it\u2019s going. You could go up to the engine room and find that it\u2019s an orangutan driving. And you\u2019re going to follow that? I think we owe our fellow citizens more than that.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"Staci
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Staci Zaretsky<\/a>\u00a0is the managing editor of Above the Law, where she\u2019s worked since 2011. She\u2019d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email<\/a> her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on\u00a0Bluesky<\/a>,\u00a0X\/Twitter<\/a>, and\u00a0Threads<\/a>,\u00a0or connect with her on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed. note: Welcome to our daily feature, Quote of the Day. Well if I find it doesn\u2019t make any sense \u2026 I think we should demand that, no matter what the case is, that it has more than just a simple theoretical basis. [I]f [it\u2019s] totally stupid, and that\u2019s what they\u2019ve decided, you don\u2019t go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":133990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Staci-Zaretsky-z6U604.jpg?fit=150%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}