On the record · Updated October 1, 2026
dissenting
25 things Justice Clarence Thomas said, verbatim, from March 26, 2026 to August 7, 2026, each linked to where it ran. Grouped by the story each one belongs to.
More on the record
As printed
“Suppose the child never visited the United States while growing up and was inculcated with hatred of this country. According to this court now, that person is a citizen of the United States.”
The Officer Tatum Supreme Court Just DESTROYED America Before it's 250th Birthday ›
As printed
“The Court, without considering any of these individual circumstances, holds unconstitutional the application of the Citizenship Order in all of them.”
The Federalist ‘Judicial Minimalist’ John Roberts Violated Procedures To Write Maximalist Birthplace Citizenship Opinion ›
As printed
“subject to the complete jurisdiction of the United States.”
The Federalist If Anyone Can Birth An ‘American,’ Citizenship Means Nothing ›
As printed
“Today, the Court does so again by recognizing a constitutional right to citizenship for the children of all foreign birth tourists and illegal aliens.”
As printed
“The termination of Haiti’s TPS designation does not deprive respondents of ‘life, liberty, or property,’ so they have no claim even if the words ‘due process’ implicitly forbid discriminatory animus”
The Federalist SCOTUS Win For Trump Admin Should Motivate Us To Eliminate TPS Completely ›
As printed
“The Court’s interpretation is not only contrary to the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, it produces grotesque results. While foreigners who wish to immigrate lawfully must sometimes wait for many years, a child born here to a birth tourist is automatically a citizen.”
As printed
“Today's opinion devalues that citizenship.”
on universal birthright citizenship diluting the 14th Amendment's intended scope
The Federalist SCOTUS Says Babies Of Illegal Aliens, CCP Birth Tourists Are US Citizens Because Of Magic Dirt ›
As printed
“Both the Civil Rights Act and the Citizenship Clause guaranteed citizenship to persons born and domiciled in the United States regardless of their race,” Thomas wrote for himself and Justice Neil Gorsuch. “Neither guaranteed citizenship to persons who were not domiciled in the United States.”
USA Today Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, allows trans athlete bans ›
As printed
“No. ‘In the United States’ means in the United States. You’re not in the United States if you’re waiting on the other side of the border.”
The Daily Wire - Breaking News, Videos & Podcasts The Rule Democrats Loved … Until Now ›
As printed
“initiated removal proceedings and secured a removal order based on his conviction.”
As printed
“[n]othing in the INA required the border officer to have clear and convincing evidence that Lau had committed a crime involving moral turpitude before deeming him an applicant for admission.”
The Federalist SCOTUS Upholds Border Officials’ Ability To Parole Green Card Holders Who ‘Committed’ Crimes ›
As printed
“The Court has repurposed the Fourteenth Amendment to protect its own set of preferred rights that the Reconstruction Congress never contemplated and that cannot find support in its text,”
As printed
“To use language to obscure reality — to show ‘indifference regarding the truth’ — is to lie to the public and cease to treat our fellow citizens ‘as equal[s].'”
As printed
“It has now been 26 years since a party has received relief in this Court based on a Commerce Clause challenge.”
As printed
“pending the resolution of his criminal case, meaning that he was allowed to physically enter the country without being formally admitted.”
on a noncitizen's legal status while a criminal case was pending
As printed
“Diane Monson and Angel Raich use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines, and that has had no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana,”
on marijuana never sold or crossed state lines in a Commerce Clause gun case
Reason.com Clarence Thomas Explains Why the Commerce Clause Cannot Justify Federal Bans on Gun Possession ›
As printed
“could be an exercise of Congress's Commerce Clause powers as an original matter”
on Congress's constitutional authority in a gun rights and marijuana case
Blaze Media ‘Shall not be infringed’ — even if you're high, Supreme Court rules ›
As printed
“declines to even hear Florida’s claims, even though it has nowhere else to bring them.”
on SCOTUS declining to hear Florida's challenge over non-English-reading truck drivers
The Federalist Since SCOTUS Let Truck Drivers Who Can’t Read English Kill Americans, Trump Needs To Take Action ›
As printed
“Cox provided Internet service to its subscribers, but it did not intend for that service to be used to commit copyright infringement,”
on the Supreme Court ruling that Cox is not liable for users' illegal downloads
Reason.com Unanimous Supreme Court Says Internet Service Provider Not Liable for Internet Users' Illegal Downloads ›
As printed
“'courts cannot examine' 'the President's actions on subjects within his”
on Thomas's view that courts cannot review certain presidential actions
Reason.com Clarence Thomas Doubled Down on Presidential Power ›
As printed
“The class of people who claim transgender status could more accurately be described as people who are experiencing ‘gender dysphoria,’ which is not a ‘discrete group,'”
The Federalist Here’s The Big Question SCOTUS Left Unanswered In Its Women’s Sports Ruling ›
As printed
“Because "gender dysphoria" is a mutable mental state that is the object of psychiatric treatment, it does not resemble the immutable characteristics on the basis of which our precedents have applied heightened scrutiny—race, sex, or national origin.”
on denying gender dysphoria constitutional protection by classifying as mutable
World Socialist Web Site U.S. Supreme Court upholds state bans on transgender athletes while striking down campaign finance regulation ›
As printed
“Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or girls, even if they believe that they are. Sex is an immutable ‘biological’ characteristic …; it is binary; and ‘man’ and ‘woman,’ ‘boy’ and ‘girl,’ are the terms that correspond to adults and children of each sex,”
on the Supreme Court upholding bans on transgender athletes in women's sports
The Federalist Supreme Court Upholds Laws Protecting Women’s Sports From ‘Trans’ Radicalism ›
As printed
“He said that the problem with progressives and with the left, including the Democratic Socialists of America, is that they don’t believe our rights come from God. They believe our rights come from government.”
Breitbart News Peter Schweizer: One Third of Democrats Now Call Themselves Socialists ›
Further reading
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In their own words
Clarence Thomas · 2007
Justice Thomas recounts his childhood in Pin Point, Georgia, his education, and his 1991 confirmation hearings.
Biography
Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher · 2007
Two Washington Post journalists draw on interviews and records to follow Thomas from rural Georgia through his confirmation fight and years on the Supreme Court.
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