Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas appeared to issue a warning to social media companies that censor conservatives.
In an opinion on a Supreme Court decision regarding former President Donald Trump’s banning of individuals from following his Twitter account, Thomas speculated that the plaintiff’s grievances may have been undermined by the fact that the former Commander-in-Chief was kicked off social media platforms.
“It seems rather odd to say that something is a government forum when a private company has unrestricted authority to do away with it,” the justice wrote in his statement. “Any control Mr. Trump exercised over the account greatly paled in comparison to Twitter’s authority, dictated in its terms of service, to remove the account ‘at any time for any or no reason.’ Twitter exercised its authority to do exactly that.”
The Supreme Court justice also raised the question of whether the companies violated the First Amendment right to free speech.
Thomas wrote, “Today’s digital platforms provide avenues for historically unprecedented amounts of speech, including speech by government actors. Also unprecedented, however, is control of so much speech in the hands of a few private parties. We will soon have no choice but to address how our legal doctrines apply to highly concentrated, privately owned information infrastructure such as digital platforms.”
He called out Google and Facebook owners specifically, writing, “Although both companies are public, one person controls Facebook (Mark Zuckerberg), and just two control Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin).”
Thomas carefully considers whether social media companies should be afforded legal protection by the government outlined in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and laments that the current case doesn’t allow for the court to address the issue fully:
As Twitter made clear, the right to cut off speech lies most powerfully in the hands of private digital platforms. The extent to which that power matters for purposes of the First Amendment and the extent to which that power could lawfully be modified raise interesting and important questions.
“This petition, unfortunately, affords us no opportunity to confront them,” Thomas concluded.
Documentary Director Says Amazon Pulled Clarence Thomas Film without Explanation
The director of the documentary, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in his Own Words, says Amazon removed the film from its video service without any explanation.
What’s worse? The removal occurred early into Black History Month.
Clarence Thomas is the second black Supreme Court Justice in our nation’s history and is known for his conservative and constitutionalist legal opinions.
“Our distributor, who’s the one who made the deal with Amazon, has repeatedly asked them for explanations, but they haven’t given any,” said the film’s director Michael Pack to the Wall Street Journal. “They have the right to pull anything from their site, and they don’t have to give an explanation. So it’s not a contract violation. But many people have complained, and they haven’t put it back up.”
The Washington Examiner explains that the documentary “covers the life of Thomas from his childhood in segregated Georgia, his education at Yale University, and his heated Supreme Court confirmation hearings, which featured accusations of sexual harassment from Anita Hill, a law professor who had previously worked for him.”
Pack says the film, which originally aired on PBS in May 2020, was a success on Amazon’s platform and had—at one point—risen to the No. 1 documentary on the service.
“I don’t think Amazon should get away with doing these things without suffering at least some PR consequences,” said the director. “Deplatforming will go on if people don’t write about it and complain about it.”
MSNBC's Joy Reid Used Racist Slur Calling Justice Thomas 'Uncle Clarence'
A lot of heat has come down on MSNBC’s Joy Reid for using a racial slur against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, calling him “Uncle Clarence”
“It’s not exactly clear that we can trust Amy Coney Barrett and Kavanaugh and these others not to be just like Bill Barr,” Reid said, referring to the attorney general. “So what I think scares people is that if [Trump] decides to do something that legally makes no sense … but if they somehow manage to stumble into the Supreme Court, do any of you guys trust Uncle Clarence and Amy Coney Barrett and those guys to actually follow the letter of the law? No! I mean, it’s a completely politicized Supreme Court that you can’t just trust that they’re going to do the right thing.”
She added, “Now so far, the court has actually been pretty good. So we’ll see.”
MSNBC's @JoyAnnReid slurs Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as "Uncle Clarence" pic.twitter.com/xFmyrks0OY
— Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) November 4, 2020
Reid was slammed on social media for her “racist” comment.
“Disgusting racist comment by @JoyAnnReid, a comment that would get her fired on any other network and deservingly so,” Reagan Batallion reacted.
“Shame on Joy Reid and MSNBC. But did @maddow say anything? How do you sit there and think this is okay? Seriously,” radio host Jason Rantz said.
“Wow. Such a horrible thing to say,” Washington Examiner reporter Anthony Leonardi tweeted.
It shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point to hear comments like this from the “tolerant” left. They can’t stand when an African American does not fall in line with their ideology, especially one as prominent as Justice Thomas.
