Clarence Thomas Says Landmark 1962 Ruling Was ‘Wrongly Decided’

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas left a bread crumb trail in a concurrent opinion on a recent case, which effectively sided with an Oregon city to support criminalizing homelessness, indicating the justice supports also the criminalization of drug addiction. Writing in City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson , Thomas took aim at a landmark 1962 case, Robinson v. California, which declared laws criminalizing drug addiction unconstitutional, according to Newsweek . Thomas said the decades-old ruling was “wrongly decided.” He added: “Rather than let Robinson’ s erroneous holding linger in the background of our Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, we should dispose of it once and for all.” Thomas wrote. “In an appropriate case, the Court should certainly correct this error,” he continued. Thomas’s dissent against Robinson stemmed from his perception that “modern public opinion is not an appropriate metric for interpreting the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause.” Thomas has previously advocated for the decriminalization of marijuana and has admitted to smoking marijuana himself, something he “regrets.”

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