After Clarence Thomas questioned Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel, will others follow?
When the Supreme Court handed Trump his presidential immunity win, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas questioned whether special counsel Jack Smith was lawfully appointed.
WASHINGTON — When the Supreme Court this month handed a big win to former President Donald Trump on presidential immunity, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas wrote his own opinion raising questions about a related issue: Was special counsel Jack Smith lawfully appointed?
"If this unprecedented prosecution is to proceed, it must be conducted by someone duly authorized to do so by the American people," Thomas wrote. It was questionable whether Smith's appointment was indeed valid under the Constitution's Appointments Clause, he added.
Thomas did not definitively answer the question, but U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon echoed his approach to Trump’s election interference case Monday when she dismissed the charges in Trump's classified documents case in Florida, which Smith is also prosecuting.
Her ruling, which cited Thomas' opinion three times, raises the possibility of an appeal in the case going to the Supreme Court, where the nine justices would tackle the issue head-on. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
What is unclear, however, is whether Thomas' views would carry the day, as no other justices signed on to his opinion this month.Lawyers involved in arguing the issue in the Florida court had predictably differing views about whether Thomas’ position would prevail if the issue came before the Supreme Court.
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