The Queens lawmaker took a hatchet to Clarence Thomas's personal attacks against his newly seated colleague Ketanji Brown Jackson over her objections to the court destroying Affirmative action.
Thomas used offensive, vindictive, and disrespectful language to assail Brown's dissenting opinion on race.
"I mean, what Justice Clarence Thomas wrote there, I believe, is profoundly disrespectful to -- i just think it was profoundly disrespectful to his colleague," she said. "It includes sweeping assumptions about her world view."
"Whereas when you look at what the response was from Justice Ketanji Brown, we saw that her descent was grounded in fact, it was grounded in the facts of the case," Cortez said. "It did not disparage Clarence Thomas' overall world view, but as a matter of fact, a nuanced critique of his analysis of the facts of the case."
"But for him to come out and insinuate that her opinion is due to some sort of inferior or less than, you know, less than really thought out of a stance, I think it's profoundly insulting. and I think that he really demonstrated his character, frankly, and his world view in that critique, himself."
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also made a move that Thomas has refused to do when he has a conflict of interest. She recused herself because of her ties to Harvard.
To Thomas, having his wife be part of a case he's going to judge is not enough of a conflict.
