Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas squashed rumors that he may be preparing for retirement after having served on the nation's highest court for more than 27 years.
Thomas is known for saying very little and asking few questions during deliberations before the court, so it's little surprise that when asked at a Pepperdine University School of Law dinner last weekend who he would want to speak at his retirement party in 20 years, Thomas tersely replied, "I'm not retiring."
The moderator then nudged the question forward by asking about a 30-year timeline, but the justice laughed and said, "Nope," according to Law360.com.
In mid-February, media reports began to emerge hinting that one of the most conservative jurists on the nine-member court might be preparing to leave.
After Thomas made remarks in February that the Supreme Court ought to revisit a landmark First Amendment Case, CNN published a story headlined, "Is Clarence Thomas headed out or just getting started?"
"[Thomas's remarks] even reignited a whispering campaign among progressives that the 70-year-old justice is preparing to retire," the CNN story said. "The thinking goes that he had launched the opinion—joined by no other justice—as a kind of last salvo as he prepared to relinquish his seat to a younger Trump nominee."
About the same time, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin published an article on the same themes in the New Yorker magazine.
"Over the years, he has made little secret of the fact that he doesn't enjoy the job very much, "Toobin wrote. "With a conservative future of the Court secure, why wouldn't he call it a day after twenty-eight years? Because, according to his friends, he feels an obligation to continue doing the job for as long as he is able, regardless of the political implications of his departure. Of course, no one except Thomas knows for sure what he will do, and that leaves his decision open to speculation."
PredictIt.org, a website that creates markets on future events, shows that investors in recent months have consistently given Thomas second-best odds as the Supreme Court justice most likely to create the next vacancy on the court, ranked only behind Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
One commenter on PredictIt.org reacted to the weekend comments by saying, "This should send the Thomas shares down to a single digit."
President George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas to the high court in 1991 after the retirement of Thurgood Marshall.