Justices Thomas, Alito complain about 'nastiness' and 'imperiled' freedom of religion

Two of the Supreme Court’s most conservative members painted dark pictures of the nation in separate recent remarks.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who has faced heavy criticism along with his wife in recent years, said at a judicial conference Friday he lives in a world in which “the nastiness and the lies” are “just incredible.”

Justice Samuel Alito warned graduates at a Catholic University that support for freedom of speech is “dangerously declining” and “freedom of religion is also imperiled.”

“I think it is rougher out there right now than it has been for quite some time,” Alito said in a commencement address at Franciscan University of Steubenville where he received a standing ovation for authoring the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning the right to an abortion.

Before receiving an honorary degree in Christian ethics, Alito was also praised for writing a 2014 decision exempting Hobby Lobby and other businesses with religious objections from the Affordable Care Act's "contraceptive mandate.”

“Right now, in the world outside this beautiful campus, troubled waters are slamming against some of our most fundamental principles,” Alito told the graduates.

Alluding to complaints that college campuses are friendlier to liberal views than conservative ones when it comes to free speech, Alito said few colleges are living up to the ideal of “reasoned debate.”

Raising equal alarm about the freedom of religion, Alito said the graduates may soon find themselves in a job or social setting where they will feel pressure to endorse ideas they don’t believe in or to abandon core beliefs.

“It will be up to you to stand firm,” he said.

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Thomas, who spoke at an 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals conference in Point Clear, Alabama, decried Washington, D.C., as a “hideous place,” according to media reports.

Both Thomas and his wife, Ginni, have been the subject of intense scrutiny in recent years.  Thomas has been heavily criticized for accepting luxury gifts from billionaires friends without reporting them on his financial disclosures.

The Supreme Court justice has also faced serious blowback for not recusing himself from cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack given his wife’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“I think there’s challenges to that. We’re in a world and we – certainly my wife and I the last two or three years it’s been – just the nastiness and the lies, it’s just incredible,” Thomas said, responding to a question about working in a hostile world, according to the Associated Press.

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Thomas also derided Washington D.C. as a place where “people pride themselves in being awful,” according to the New York Times. “It’s a hideous place, as far as I’m concerned. Because the rest of the country, it’s one of the reasons we like RV.-ing, you get to be around regular people who don’t pride themselves in doing harmful things, merely because they have the capacity to do it,” Thomas said.

Among the many criticisms levied at Thomas is his acceptance of a $267,000 loan from a wealthy businessman to purchase a luxury RV, but Thomas did not make mention of that in his remarks, the New York Times reported.

“Being in Washington, you have to get used to particularly people who are reckless,” Thomas said, according to CNN. “They don’t bomb you, necessarily, but they bomb your reputation or your good name or your honor. And that’s not a crime but they can do as much harm that way.”

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Justices Thomas, Alito paint dark view of nation in separate remarks