US Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas released from hospital
Thomas, 73, was treated for an infection with intravenous antibiotics, the court said, and did not have COVID-19.
Published On 25 Mar 2022
United States Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas has been discharged from the hospital nearly a week after he was taken in with “flu-like symptoms”.
Thomas, 73, was treated for an infection with intravenous antibiotics. The Supreme Court on Friday did not say why he remained in the hospital longer than initially thought or what kind of infection he was treated for but added he did not have COVID-19.
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He has been vaccinated and boosted, like the rest of the court.
Thomas, a conservative and appointee of former President George W Bush, has been on the court since 1991.
The justice missed arguments at the high court on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but Chief Justice John Roberts said Thomas would participate in the cases using briefs the parties filed and the transcript of the arguments.
BREAKING: Clarence Thomas was discharged from the hospital today, the Supreme Court said. The court gave no further information.
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) March 25, 2022
Thomas’s release from hospital comes after Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson finished three days of confirmation hearings on Wednesday.
During questioning, Republicans tried to paint her as soft on crime and Democrats heralded her historic nomination to be the first Black woman on the high court.
In February, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, named Ketanji to replace Stephen Breyer, who is retiring at the end of the session this summer.
On Thursday, the Washington Post and CBS News reported that Thomas’s wife Virginia had sent text messages imploring White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to act to overturn the 2020 presidential election, furthering Donald Trump’s unfounded claims that the vote was marred by fraud.
The 29 messages the pair exchanged came in the weeks after the vote in November 2020, when Trump and his top allies said they planned to go to the Supreme Court to have the results voided.
The texts do not directly reference Clarence or the Supreme Court. But she has previously admitted to attending Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Capitol riot.
Virginia also has previously denied conflicts of interest between her activism and her husband’s place on the high court.
Source: News Agencies