The Supreme Court has yet to provide an update on Justice Clarence Thomas, 73, after he was hospitalized with an infection last week due to “flu-like symptoms.”
Thomas was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. on Friday, the Supreme Court said in a Sunday statement.
Although the conservative judge’s hospitalization statement did not explain why he waited two days to reveal the situation, it did say that Thomas was due to be released in the next couple of days.
However, six days after his hospitalization, there was no update on his status or whether he had been released from the hospital.
The Supreme Court Public Information Service did not immediately respond to ‘s inquiry about Thomas’s status until several days after the statement.
“Judge Clarence Thomas was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. Friday night after he developed flu-like symptoms,” the statement said Sunday. “He’s been tested, he’s been diagnosed with an infection, and he’s being treated with intravenous antibiotics.”
“His symptoms are easing, he is resting comfortably and expects to be released from the hospital in a day or two,” the statement said. “Judge Thomas will participate in the hearing and deliberations of any cases in which he is not present, based on summaries, transcripts and audio recordings of oral pleadings.”
The statement does not provide any further details about the infection, but says Thomas is being treated with antibiotics and his symptoms are easing.
It is reported that the disease is not related to COVID. Earlier this year, a spokesman for the court said all nine judges had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and received booster doses.
There has been no word yet on Justice Clarence Thomas after the Supreme Court announced on Sunday that he was hospitalized with an infection on Friday.
Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, DC, where Judge Thomas is currently being treated.
Thomas sits with his wife and conservative activist Virginia Thomas (center) and Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (right) as they wait to speak at the Legacy Foundation in October 2021.
The Supreme Court is meeting this week to hear arguments in four cases. Thomas plans to get involved in cases even if he misses arguments.
The longest-serving high court judge was appointed by President George W. Bush in 1991 to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court created by the retirement of Liberal Justice Thurgood Marshall, the court’s first black judge.
The announcement of the hospitalization comes a day before federal appeals judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s hearing on President Joe Biden’s nominee, who will become the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, began on Monday.
On Monday, Jackson delivered opening statements followed by two days of grueling interrogation, during which she faced criticism from the Republican Party for sentencing child porn offenders and her unwillingness to define “woman.”
Thomas was born near Savannah, Georgia in 1948. Raised by a single mother, the fire left Thomas’ family homeless before he moved in with his maternal grandparents.
Justice Clarence Thomas, candidate for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, is sworn in by Justice Brion White on the South Lawn of the White House as his wife Virginia and Presidents H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush look on
Members of the Supreme Court pose for a group photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. Thomas is second from the left in the front row.
Thomas is sworn in to Justice Amy Coney Barrett as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on the South Lawn in 2020.
He originally aspired to become a Roman Catholic priest, but abandoned that dream after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
Thomas received a law degree from Yale University and was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1974.
His career received a huge boost from President Ronald Reagan, who appointed him chairman of the US Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity.
In 1990, President Bush nominated Thomas to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, and again nominated him to the highest court the following year.
Thomas’s confirmation hearing in the country’s highest court was one of the most dramatic in history after former EEOC employee Anita Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment.
The FBI investigated the allegation and returned with an inconclusive report. Hill eventually testified before the Senate, while Thomas denied the allegations.
The Senate confirmed Thomas by a 52–48 margin in October 1991, the closest margin in a century at the time.
Thomas shakes hands with then Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Biden before his 1991 confirmation hearing.
Virginia Thomas – wife of current Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas – stands behind Thomas at the microphones during a brief press conference under umbrellas during a rainstorm to confirm the Senate Judiciary Committee’s vote confirming his appointment as an Associate Justice. to court
Anita Hill brought charges against Thomas that he sexually harassed her while working for him in the 1980s.
Thomas was known in court for rarely asking questions during hearings and for being a strict adherent of the original decisions regarding the source texts of the United States Constitution.
He once famously remained silent during legal disputes for seven years, breaking that silence in 2013.
Thomas said he thinks judges spend too much time asking questions of lawyers who come before them in oral arguments.
“I think this is an opportunity for attorneys, lawyers, to fill in the blanks, to state their position,” Thomas said in a 2009 interview with C-SPAN for a series on life in court.
“I think you should let people finish their answers and their thoughts and continue the conversation,” he continued. “I find that the coherence you get from a conversation is much more useful than quick-fire questions.”