Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is secretly lobbying Republican senators to urge them to vote to confirm President Donald Trump’s controversial judicial nominee, Neomi Rao, according to Rawstory.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that Thomas “is working behind the scenes to boost the prospects of his former law clerk, Neomi Rao, to serve on a powerful federal appeals court in Washington.”
READ MORE: Clarence Thomas wants to make it easier for some folks to sue for defamation
Although small, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is a powerful appellate court that has helped to propel the careers of numerous current Supreme Court justices. The court has the power to hear cases brought by or against the federal government, and “tends to have exclusive jurisdiction over matters that are likely to have a national effect,” Rawstory reports.
Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh is one of four Supreme Court justices who previously sat on the D.C. Court of Appeals. It is Kavanaugh’s recent vacancy that Rao seeks to fill. Rao’s rulings are considered right of mainstream and even inappropriate by some for a judge sitting on the federal bench to hold. Still, she is President Trump’s nominee to replace Kavanaugh now that he has been elevated to the nation’s top court.
While Justice Thomas continues to push Rao, his wife, Tea Party activist Ginni Thomas, was recently in the news after it was discovered she has been lobbying President Trump inside the White House, disparaging transgender troops and women serving in the U.S. armed forces, according to Rawstory.
READ MORE: Supreme Court moves right, but how far, how fast?
What makes this particularly lobbying so damaging is because Justice Thomas will likely hear one case on the constitutionality of banning troops because they are transgender.
As for Rao, many Republicans who are opposed to her nomination believe she is not extreme enough to overturn Roe v. Wade. Others exercise caution regarding her because she fails to say if she believes same-sex relationships are a sin.
There are also her college-era writings “about date-rape, sexual assault and the responsibility of those involved,” which seem to place at least some of the onus of responsibility for assault on women, according to NBC News.
Rao has expressed regret about some of her earlier writings although she described some of her papers as ‘common sense observations’ that would make women less likely to be a victim of assault.
READ MORE: Supreme Court denies Ark. judge’s call to reverse barring from death penalty cases