SCOTUS' Thomas Again the Lone Voice of Reason in a Government Overreach Case

Standing by the Constitution - by Himself

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been seated a long time. Since 1991 - thirty-five years and counting. That entire time? He has been almost inarguably its most stringently Constitutional and conservative member.

I remember a lawyer friend about two decades ago comparing-and-contrasting Thomas and then-Court-mate and conservative icon - the late Antonin Scalia.

My friend pointed out that when Thomas and Scalia disagreed on a case? Thomas was correct - and Scalia incorrect.

Of course, their disagreeing didn’t happen a whole lot. But when it did? My friend called it: Thomas was right - Scalia was wrong. By that I mean: Thomas’ were the more Constitutional and conservative opinions.

These last 35 years, the real sardonic fun is when Thomas is outvoted on a case X-to-1. (X is usually 8, but there are occasional vacancies and recusals.)

As someone who wants DC to be drastically smaller and less offensive? I feel like an X-to-1 all the time. So I admire Thomas’ perpetual adherence to principle - the popularity of his opinion amongst his colleagues be darned.

Elon Musk’s Grok tells me there have been 52 cases where Thomas was just such a party of one. But I’m not sure if Grok caught last Thursday’s ruling. If not? This is #53…..

SCOTUS Delivers 8-1 Blow to AT&T, Verizon in $100M FCC Case:

“The Supreme Court on Thursday sided 8-1 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) against two telecom giants over a combined $100 million in fines.

“Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. The lone dissenter was Justice Clarence Thomas.

“Telecom companies AT&T and Verizon claimed the FCC violated their rights to a jury trial by issuing fines for an alleged violation of the law.

“The FCC had found that both companies violated the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which requires carriers to protect the confidentiality of customer data. The commission fined AT&T $57 million and fined Verizon $46.9 million.

“Both companies sued, saying the fines imposed by an administrative body violate the right to a jury trial.

“The government argued that the fines are similar to an indictment. As an indictment is only a notice of charges before a criminal trial, similarly, an FCC fine is an assertion that the government could proceed with a lawsuit, the government argued.”

Did you get that? The government claims its fines are similar to an indictment.

For those of you who don’t know? A fine is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like an indictment.

Let’s check with our old friend Merriam Webster:

Indictment: “A formal written statement prepared by a prosecuting authority charging a person with a crime and returned by a jury (such as a grand jury) upon finding that sufficient evidence to support it was presented.”

Fine: “A sum imposed as punishment for an offense.”

An indictment sets up a trial of the accused. A fine is a punishment after a trial - in which the accused has been found guilty.

So, again, a fine is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like an indictment.

The FCC bypassed the entire trial process - and went straight to the “You’re guilty” punishment phase.

Which is CLEARLY a violation of Verizon and AT&T’s Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial:

“In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.”

I know there has been horrific monetary inflation since 1787. Even still? $100 million is greater than $20. So the companies are supposed to get a jury trial.

Yet somehow, eight (8) Supreme Court Justices - including four allegedly conservative ones - missed the glaringly obvious.

And there yet again was Thomas - all by his onesies.

Why is this important? Because we don’t want unelected bureaucrats in the Executive Branch pretending to be Judicial Branch judges and Justices - AND juries.

SCOTUS recently overturned four decades of its own dumbness - a titanic mess that was called Chevron deference. Which allowed unelected Executive Branch bureaucrats to pretend to be the Legislative Branch and unilaterally write laws.

(On which, by the way, Thomas and Scalia mostly disagreed. Yet again: Thomas was right - Scalia was wrong.)

Now we have most of SCOTUS yet again losing the thread. And allowing unelected bureaucrats to be preemptive Judicial Branch judges, juries - and executioners. All in one.

And there sits Thomas. Yet again correct - and all alone.

Here’s hoping it doesn’t again take SCOTUS four decades to clean up this titanic mess it just made.