WASHINGTON DC, USA – Rarely are Supreme Court proceedings rocked by such astonishment.
On Monday, February 29, Justice Clarence Thomas broke with a years-long habit of silence by asking a question during a hearing on gun rights – his first in a decade.
An arch-conservative who was ideologically aligned to his friend on the court, the late – and voluble – Justice Antonin Scalia, Thomas has become known as the only justice never to open his mouth during oral arguments.
But Federal government lawyer Ilana Eisenstein had wrapped up arguments in a case over a law banning those convicted for domestic violence from owning firearms when Thomas spoke up.
"Can you give me another area where a misdemeanor violation suspends a constitutional right?" he asked.
Heads turned in disbelief.
Sitting next to Scalia's empty seat – which remains draped in black – Thomas went on to ask several more rapid-fire questions as if he had suddenly found his tongue, journalists covering the case said.
He last asked a question on February 22, 2006 in a case concerning the death penalty.
Only once since then, in January 2013, did he break his silence to crack a joke during oral proceedings.
Eight justices currently sit on the Supreme Court instead of the usual nine as the White House braces for a showdown with the Senate's Republican majority over the appointment of a replacement for Scalia, who died earlier this month.
The court's sole African American, Thomas supports "originalism" – the idea championed by Scalia that the constitution must be interpreted according to the Founding Fathers' original intent.
Appointed by President George Bush in 1991, Thomas is also a strong defender of the Second Amendment, which holds that Americans have the right to keep and bear arms.
The 67-year-old judge has put forward various reasons for his silence over the years, once stating that asking too many questions is "not helpful" for deciding cases because lawyers do most of the work in the legal briefs they file with the court. – Rappler.com