Justice Thomas’ wife is political activist

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Virginia Thomas is an experienced political activist with ties to the tea-party movement. She’s an outspoken opponent of the Obama administration. She’s also the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

She’s now in the spotlight for her out-of-the-blue phone call asking Anita Hill to apologize for a 19-year-old sexual harassment accusation that nearly kept him off the court.

Tuesday, Hill said she stood by what she said in 1991 at Thomas’ confirmation hearings. The justice’s wife described her call to Hill as “extending an olive branch.”

Though Virginia Thomas offered no explanation about the timing of her phone call, The New York Times had published a front-page story on her political activism Oct. 9, the day she placed the call.

Virginia Thomas is easily the most politically active Supreme Court spouse, having worked for the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and at the Heritage Foundation, a Republican-leaning think tank in Washington.

Her latest role is as the founder of Liberty Central, a new nonprofit group that opposes what she has described as a power grab by the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.

The justice’s wife has strenuously criticized several Obama legislative successes, including financial regulation and the health-care overhaul.

Ethics expert Steven Lubet, who teaches law at Northwestern University, said Virginia Thomas’ role as health-overhaul critic should not pose a problem for her husband if the high court eventually passes judgment on the law, as seems likely.

“Those two things are pretty separate,” Lubet said, adding that it is more and more the case that both spouses in power couples can have prominent roles.