Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Virginia. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, she said: Â?I have felt called to the front lines with you, with my fellow citizens, to preserve what made America great.Â? (Roger L. Wollenberg, UPI/Newscom / November 15, 2007)

Reporting from Washington
As Virginia Thomas tells it in her soft-spoken, Midwestern cadence, the story of her involvement in the “tea party” movement is the tale of an average citizen in action.

“I am an ordinary citizen from Omaha, Neb., who just may have the chance to preserve liberty along with you and other people like you,” she said at a recent panel discussion with tea party leaders in Washington. Thomas went on to count herself among those energized into action by President Obama’s “hard-left agenda.”

But Thomas is no ordinary activist.

She is the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and she has launched a tea-party-linked group that could test the traditional notions of political impartiality for the court.

In January, Virginia Thomas created Liberty Central Inc., a nonprofit lobbying group whose website will organize activism around a set of conservative “core principles,” she said.

The group plans to issue score cards for Congress members and be involved in the November election, although Thomas would not specify how. She said it would accept donations from various sources — including corporations — as allowed under campaign finance rules recently loosened by the Supreme Court.

“I adore all the new citizen patriots who are rising up across this country,” Thomas, who goes by Ginni, said on the panel at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “I have felt called to the front lines with you, with my fellow citizens, to preserve what made America great.”

The move by Virginia Thomas, 52, into the front lines of politics stands in marked contrast to the rarefied culture of the nation’s highest court, which normally prizes the appearance of nonpartisanship and a distance from the fisticuffs of the politics of the day.

Justice Thomas, 61, recently expressed sensitivity to such concerns, telling law students in Florida that he doesn’t attend the State of the Union because it is “so partisan.” Thomas, who was nominated by President George H.W. Bush, has been a reliable conservative vote since he joined the court in 1991.

Experts say Virginia Thomas’ work doesn’t violate ethical rules for judges. But Liberty Central could give rise to conflicts of interest for her husband, they said, as it tests the norms for judicial spouses. The couple have been married since 1987.

“I think the American public expects the justices to be out of politics,” said University of Texas law school professor Lucas A. “Scot” Powe, a court historian.

He said the expectations for spouses are far less clear. “I really don’t know because we’ve never seen it,” Powe said.

Under judicial rules, judges must curb political activity, but a spouse is free to engage.

“We expect the justice to make decisions uninfluenced by the political or legal preferences of his or her spouse,” said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers, an expert on legal ethics.

Virginia Thomas declined to comment in detail about her plans for LibertyCentral.org, which she said would fully launch in May. In a brief phone interview, she did not directly answer questions about whether she and her husband had discussed the effects her role might have on perceptions of his impartiality.

“I don’t involve myself in litigation. Are you asking that because there’s a different standard for conservatives? Did you ask Ed Rendell that question?” she said, referring to the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, who is married to a federal appellate court judge.

Virginia Thomas has long been a passionate voice for conservative views. She has worked for former Republican Rep. Dick Armey of Texas and for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with strong ties to the GOP.

In 2000, while at the Heritage Foundation, she was recruiting staff for a possible George W. Bush administration as her husband was hearing the case that would decide the election. When journalists reported her work, Thomas said she saw no conflict of interest and that she rarely discussed court matters with her husband.

“We have our separate professional lives,” she said at the time.

In fall 2008, when Thomas joined Hillsdale College as an administrator, she called the school’s Washington campus “the safest place for me to be when it comes to conflicts.” Her new endeavor could signal a return from that shelter.

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I can hear Black America railing at this Uncle Tom. We have more traitors in our white race. But Thomas’s wife is casting aside all pretense of impartiality.

Her corporation is now able to spend unlimited money on its choice of candidates and political groups.

Justice Scalia is often caught openly commenting on cases that he will be deciding on. Alioto,broke his position of neutrality during President Obama’s speech.

Anything goes now that we have a black in the White House. My friends like me are democrats. But I often hear from some of them that it would be easier to support Obama if his skin color and features were closer to his mother’s.

Glen

I found the article I think your comment was based on. It is truly disgusting that the Supreme Court Justices can decide for themselves whether to recuse themselves if there is a possible conflict of interest.

This article exposes the arrogance of these crooks. They are not afraid of the people. They boldly give themselves and the ones who have bought and paid for them what they paid for.

They truly do not fear the people. Anonz is right. We have to stand up to these bastards or we will never cast off the yokes of their ownership.

Glen

I and my cousin got the very same scam. Well, for me it was a scam. My cousin eventually got a check for $5,000.00with instructions to cash it and send $1,929.00 via money order to an address.

He did. The check he got bounced and he is out more than $2,000.00. He feels so stupid.

Thanks Michelle for making it easier for the stupid to resist this scheme.

Clyde

When you put your mind to it. You are in a class by yourself. I get your message about the aliens.

To blatantly ignore their existence is horse shit. The World leaders know about their existence and their destructive capabilities. They also have been given gifts by Aliens. It depends on cooperation.

In the past, when we agree to give them space to do their thing, they have been friendly. However they can show off their powers by causing Seismic, Volcanic, and Weather Disturbances anywhere they please. They are far advanced from us — Why would they even try to ignore them? I wouldn’t, would you?

HOWIE