Hollywood actor Samuel L. Jackson has publicly called out US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas following his suggestion that a ruling permitting same sex-marriage should be 'reconsidered'.
Thomas' remarks come in the wake of last week's landmark ruling by the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade - and thus the constitutional right to abortion.
On Friday, just after the ruling which will let each individual US State rule on the legality of abortion, Jackson took to Twitter to mock Justice Thomas for his comments about reconsidering other liberties.
Loving vs Virginia refers to a 1967 Supreme Court ruling which found that interracial marriage bans were unconstitutional.
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Jackson's tweet is especially pointed given that Thomas himself had an interracial marriage in 1987 to Virginia Thomas - a white woman.
Following last week's court decision on Roe v. Wade, many people on the political left were worried that the ruling would set a dangerous precedent moving forwards, as it may see other civil liberties be stripped away from US citizens.
These fears turned out to be justified, as in a concurring opinion, Justice Thomas wrote that the Supreme Court should 'reconsider' rulings that legalised birth control, sodomy and sam-sex marriage next.
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"In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is 'demonstrably erroneous', ... we have a duty to 'correct the error' established in those precedents," he said.
The 74-year-old from Georgia was first appointed to the Supreme Court back in 1991 by then President George Bush.
Known as one of the most conservative judges of the nine, he has been joined by Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett in recent years.
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With justices tending to vote along ideological lines, these appointments have changed the make-up of the Supreme Court from majority liberal, to majority conservative.
Without that majority, the overturning of Roe v. Wade simply wouldn't have been possible.
Jim Obergefell, one of the plaintiffs in the historic Obergefell v. Hodge case that guaranteed the right to marry to same-sex couples, said in a statement sent to PEOPLE that Thomas need to take a look at himself in the mirror after his recent comments.
"The millions of loving couples who have the right to marriage equality to form their own families do not need Clarence Thomas imposing his individual twisted morality upon them," he said.
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"If you want to see an error in judgement, Clarence Thomas, look in the mirror."
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren also called out Thomas in a tweet on Sunday: "Clarence Thomas made it clear: right-wing extremists aren't stopping at abortion."
The 6-3 ruling in favour of overturning the historic 1973 decision will now hand control to each US state, meaning that the legality of abortion will vary depending upon where you are in the US.
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Over 20 states are almost certain to ban abortion across the board, with Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri and South Dakota already doing so, reports PEOPLE.
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Topics: Samuel L Jackson, Politics, US News, Social Media, Twitter, Film and TV
