Forgot Your Password?

New to The Nation? Subscribe

Print subscriber? Activate your online access

.nation-small__b{fill:#fff;}

Clarence Thomas Just Struck Another Blow to Black Power

In his majority ruling in a sleeper case about mail delivery, Thomas opened the door to a new way for Republicans to suppress the Black vote.

Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks at the Heritage Foundation on October 21, 2021.

Clarence Thomas is the worst thing to happen to Black people since Chief Justice Roger Taney, the author of the Dred Scott decision. For nearly 30 years, he has been a kind of bouncer working the door of the Supreme Court for the white supremacists, rebuffing every attempt Black people have made to achieve equality, fairness, and justice.

His latest outrageous attack on equal treatment under the law can be found in his majority opinion in United States Postal Service v. Konan. USPS v. Konan is a critical case that could directly affect the integrity of upcoming elections, but it’s gone somewhat under the radar because, on its face, the case is just about the post office. The plaintiff, Lebene Konan, is a landlord with two rental properties in Texas. Starting in May 2020, the post office stopped delivering her mail. Then it stopped delivering mail to her tenants. The post office claimed there was some dispute over the rightful owner of the properties. Over the course of two years and various attempts to rectify the problem, Konan alleged that the post office was intentionally preventing her from receiving mail, thus making it harder for her to run her properties and discouraging new tenants from moving in.

This is where I point out that Konan happens to be a Black woman trying to be a landlord in Euless, Texas (a suburb of Dallas). Konan filed various lawsuits, including ones alleging racial discrimination at the hands of the post office. Most of her claims were dismissed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the most conservative court in the country.

Only one of her claims survived: The Fifth Circuit agreed to let Konan argue her claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The Trump administration appealed, urging the high court to protect the post office from a trial and additional judicial scrutiny.

Generally speaking, you cannot sue the government to recover damages in a tort lawsuit because of the concept of “sovereign immunity”; the idea, essentially, is that the government cannot be held liable for monetary damages arising out of actions taken by the government. But under the FTCA, the government waives its sovereign immunity for issues........

© The Nation