Actor Samuel Jackson slammed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as “Uncle Clarence” for jeopardizing the legal right to interracial marriage with the court’s decision Friday to overturn of Roe v. Wade.
The same rationale the conservative court employed to reverse the 1973 decision on abortion rights could now be used to eliminate the right to same-sex marriage, contraception and interracial marriage, which was protected in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia ruling, lawmakers and scholars fear.
Jackson bashed Thomas as “Uncle Clarence” in a Friday night tweet, referring to the excessively servile Black character in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s pre-Civil War novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
How’s Uncle Clarence feeling about Overturning Loving v Virginia??!!
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) June 25, 2022
The Roe decision suggested that the legal underpinnings of the constitutional protection for abortion were weakly based on arguments that have supported other Supreme Court cases guaranteeing various rights, including the right to contraception and same-sex and interracial marriage.
In a solo concurring opinion Friday, Thomas suggested that the court should “correct the error” by withdrawing granted rights now protected under the “substantive due process clause” of the 14th Amendment.
Wonder if Loving v Virginia is next on the list of cases for Justice Thomas to overrule
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) June 24, 2022
But Thomas specifically named only the rights to same-sex marriage and contraception. He side-stepped the Loving case, which, if overturned as Roe was, could threaten his own interracial marriage to Ginni Thomas.
Jim Obergefell, the plaintiff behind the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on same-sex marriage, said Friday that Thomas omitted Loving v. Virginia on his list of top court decisions to “reconsider” because it “affects him personally.”
That “affects him personally, but he doesn’t care about the LGBTQ+ community,” Obergefell said on MSNBC’s “The Reid Out.”
Though some Thomas supporters criticized Jackson for what they called a “racist” attack on the justice, the actor’s Twitter followers mostly applauded the dig — and the issue:
NEW: Samuel L. Jackson just called out Clarence Thomas’ hypocrisy for calling to overturn same-sex marriage and contraception but not interracial marriage, which was decided on the same grounds: “How’s Uncle Clarence feeling about Overturning Loving v Virginia??!!”
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) June 25, 2022
Weird.
Interracial marriage WAS illegal in some states until the Loving decision.
What states would outlaw interracial marriage?
The same states which are imposing their will on women by outlawing abortion are probably at the top of the list.— Shelley Kelly’s Cheese and Jellies (@MainelyGill) June 25, 2022
Odd that it’s the only one he didn’t specify in his list of precedents that should be revisited.
That’s weird, right?
— Schrödinger’s Zen…(or Roger) (@RWNJ_) June 25, 2022
