Oliver made the proposal on Sunday’s episode of his HBO show Last Week Tonight, saying the supreme court justice had 30 days to accept or it would expire.
The British-born comedian’s offer came after a steady drumbeat of media investigations in the previous several months established that Thomas failed to disclose that political benefactors bought him lavish vacation travel and real estate for his mother. Thomas also failed to disclose – as required – that he allowed school fees for a family member to be paid off and had been provided a loan to buy a luxury motor coach, all after openly complaining about the need to raise supreme court justices’ salaries.
As a result, Thomas’s impartiality came into question after he sided with the contentious ruling that eliminated the federal abortion rights once provided by the Roe v Wade case.
He also recently listened to arguments over whether Donald Trump can be removed from states’ ballots in the presidential election after the former president’s supporters – whom he told to “fight like hell” – staged the January 6 attack at the US Capitol in Washington DC. Thomas resisted pressure to recuse himself from such matters, even though his wife, Ginni Thomas, is a conservative political activist who has endorsed false claims from Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden was stolen from him.
Associate Supreme Court Justice annual salary: $285,400
So if he turns it down, he either really likes being a judge (he doesn’t act like it) or he’s got a financial incentive beyond his salary to stay.
And I’m guessing he’ll turn it down.
We’re stuck with him till 2034 at least, he had this to say following his confirmation:
“The liberals made my life miserable for 43 years,” a former clerk renmembered Thomas who was 43 years old when confirmed saying, according to The New York Times. “And I’m going to make their lives miserable for 43 years.”
I wonder what ways he thinks liberals made his life miserable. Honestly sounds like this idiot doesn’t even know what the word ‘liberal’ means.
Yes, but he also lies all the time, so I wouldn’t exactly take than on face value.
I dunno. Oliver has guaranteed him a cool $1mil per year, until either Thomas or John dies (out of his own pocket no less!!), AND thrown in a brand new, top of the line Prevost Marathon motor coach.
It’s a mouth-watering deal.
Which he will turn down. If you watch the episode you’ll see all the perks he enjoys from being who he is. Which of course he’d stop being invited to, if he retired from the position.
True (and I watched the episode), but it doesn’t take away from the fact it is a sweet deal. I bet you Thomas considers it, even if he chooses not to take it.
Even if he decided it was a good deal, if he cares about the legacy of his past decisions at least seeming legitimate, he has to turn it down. We all know he’s for sale, but he loses deniability if he straight up sells out.
if he was concerned with anything he’s done seeming legitimate, He probably wouldnt have taken all the bribes and shit that we know of thus far.
Third option: he turns it down because he likes STIGGINIT too much.
What’s funny is, NPR did an interview with a guy who wrote a book on Thomas, and one of the things he points out is how much Thomas hates affirmative action because of a deep-seated insecurity about his own accomplishments.
Which becomes the ultimate irony: the only reason Thomas is on SCOTUS is because Republicans wanted a black man to replace Thurgood Marshall, but without all the pesky “morals” and “ethics.” In other words, he obtained the pinnacle of his career… Because of his skin color.
No wonder he hates himself.
I’m stealing this joke from someone I saw on bluesky or Masto (I forget), but:
Why would he take a pay cut?
We don’t deserve John Oliver. He is too good and pure.
I’m convinced that Stewart retired cause Oliver stole the source of his power when he left TDS to go to HBO.
I’d agree but. Stewart had a much harder job multiple days of the week imo. Oliver gets a week to really write gold. So Stewart still goated imo. Or his writing team was lol
Oliver’s team can spend months researching and writing individual episodes. They don’t cram those main segments into a single week of writing.
Yup very very true. Dunno why I didn’t think through that lense earlier. 🤔
Then how do you explain his return to TDS?
Stewart can only do Mondays because that’s when he can borrow the funny stone
Oliver uses its power on sunday, then sleeps.
Stewart sneaks in to steal a fragment of it before the HBO attack drones catch him. Hence only on mondays, cause he expends the energy before tuesday and cant get more until the next sunday
I’m just annoyed HBOMax is now delaying pushing John Oliver’s segments to YouTube but I guess it was inevitable…
BitTorrent’s pretty good. YouTube kind of sucks a lot
Fuck YouTube. Who cares? That platform needs to go. Hopefully more people do this.
EDIT: I wonder how many of the people giving me all these the pointless down arrows are the same ones that complain every time a news article shows how shitty YouTube is to its patrons.
What’s the alternative that actually has content?
Piracy.
pushing to YouTube is better than not pushing to YouTube.
Thomas is just going to use this to negotiate better pay from his existing benefactors…
