CNN
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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has spent recent days alongside several Trump administration Cabinet officials – making them official.
In the process, he and his wife, Ginni, have drawn exceptional attention from President Donald Trump himself.
On Wednesday morning, Thomas swore in Doug Collins to be secretary of Veterans Affairs, at a private ceremony in an ornate, chandeliered, Supreme Court conference room.
Then Thomas rode over to the White House and administered the oath to Pam Bondi as she became the new attorney general. Joining Thomas was his wife, a longtime conservative activist, whom the president extolled at the Oval Office event.
Thomas later swore in Scott Turner as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, also as Trump looked on, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
A week earlier, Thomas had read the oath to Sean Duffy, the new secretary of the Department of Transportation, in a closed ceremony at the Supreme Court with Duffy’s family.
A few days before that, on Saturday, January 25, Thomas swore in Kristi Noem, who is overseeing the Department of Homeland Security, at the foot of a grand staircase at Thomas’ suburban Virginia home.
Such events have made Thomas notably ubiquitous in this second Trump administration, at a time when a raft of litigation arising from Trump’s executive orders is already bound for the justices.
Trump may also be already eyeing a possible high court vacancy in his new term. During his first four-year term, he transformed the bench with the appointment of three new justices for a new right-wing supermajority among the nine.
Thomas, appointed to the bench in 1991 and now at 76, the eldest justice, has led much of the current court’s rightward trajectory. He has directed its contraction of individual rights, such as with the 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion.
Asked about the Thomas events or any other justices’ related activities, the Supreme Court public information office said it had no information. There was no response to a request put through the spokesperson directly to the justice.
On Wednesday, a White House official told CNN that Trump had specifically requested Thomas for the Cabinet members swearing-in ceremonies.
During the event for Bondi, Trump praised the justice and Ginni Thomas, who watched from a few feet away.
“I’d like to thank Justice Clarence Thomas and his incredible wife, who is here someplace – his highly-respected wife,” Trump said.
The president recalled when he first learned of Thomas’ star power in conservative circles. As Trump introduced the justice at an event some years ago, Trump said, “The place went crazy. It was then that I realized that you are a very popular guy and respected guy.”
Thomas nodded in acknowledgement on Wednesday but did not appear to directly respond to him. The few words the justice spoke in the Oval Office, at least while the cameras were rolling, involved the official oath he gave to Bondi. He wished her well and stepped to the side.
The official declined to say how much time the president and Thomas later spent together at the White House.
Thomas’ White House presence and involvement with multiple Cabinet officials nonetheless stands out. Traditionally, most new members of the Cabinet are sworn in by the vice president. (One exception occurred in 2019 when Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath to Bill Barr to be attorney general; Roberts and Barr had worked together in the George H.W. Bush administration.)
According to postings on the websites of the two administration agencies, however, Justice Brett Kavanaugh swore in Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin.)
In a statement to CNN, Kavanaugh said: “Over the last 19 years as a Judge and now Justice, I have administered the oath of office to countless judges, executive branch officers, and federal employees. I am always honored to do so.”
Presidents on occasion have spent time individually with justices, developing some friendships but largely keeping their respective missions separate.
Trump has signaled that he would prefer more interaction, at least at the start of his new term. In January, he called Justice Samuel Alito regarding a former Alito law clerk who was seeking a position in the new administration.
It occurred as the justices were about to take up Trump’s emergency plea to avoid sentencing in his Manhattan hush-money case. In a statement to ABC News when it reported on the call, Alito said, “We did not discuss the emergency application he filed today, and indeed, I was not even aware at the time of our conversation that such an application would be filed.”
The official who spoke to CNN on Wednesday explained the oath-ceremony requests to Thomas by saying only that the president “deeply respects and admires Justice Thomas.”
During Trump’s first term, the justice and Ginni joined Trump for private lunch, in 2018. Ginni was known for working to become involved with the administration and to ensure loyalists were among Trump’s top aides.
Ginni Thomas also became one of Trump’s most ardent supporters after he had lost his 2020 reelection bid.
Communications between her and Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows emerged during the US House of Representatives’ investigation of Trump’s interference with the 2020 election results that made Joe Biden president. She implored Meadows to continue challenging the results and declared in one message, “The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist in our History.”
Trump, of course, was able to put all that behind him as he won a new second term. And now Ginni Thomas, with her husband, have been at the scene as his new team is ushered in.
“It is such an honor to be sworn in as the United States Secretary of Homeland Security,” Noem said in a statement on the DHS site. “It was made even more meaningful by being sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at his home.”
