In The New Yorker this week, Jeffrey Toobin has a long article on the judicial philosophy of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, focusing on the role that Thomas, along with his politically-active wife Virginia, may play “in killing Obama’s health-care plan.” It’s nice to see that Toobin now recognizes Thomas’ importance as an intellectual force on the Court. That wasn’t always the case. In his 2007 book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, Toobin unflatteringly described Thomas as “a justice neither influenced by nor with influence upon his colleagues.” Now Toobin worries that “the implications of Thomas’s leadership for the Court, and for the country, are profound.” So that’s progress.

On the other hand, there are a few passages in the article suggesting that Toobin still has some more research to do…

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