One of the favorite pastimes of the nation’s legacy media outlets is maligning and spinning conspiracy theories about Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. The smear du jour, this time via Politico, is that Donald Trump’s lawyers saw a direct appeal to Thomas as their best chance to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The attempt to tarnish Thomas hangs primarily on his wife, Ginni, who was involved in some conversations about 2020-election litigation. But news flash: Justice Thomas and his wife are different people. …

Some Thomas detractors, by purporting to “explain” Thomas, have actually revealed themselves. Consider The Enigma of Clarence Thomas by Corey Robin, a political-science professor and contributing editor at the socialist rag, Jacobin. Robin claims that Thomas’s originalism is motivated by his deep-seated black nationalism and pessimism about the potential for racial harmony in America. This is a load of malarkey. Thomas has explicitly repudiated his radical past. If anything, he is living proof that anyone in America can transcend prejudice and adversity regardless of where one is born.