Clarence Thomas

Rule Changes

Wrote the controlling opinion

For nearly four decades, military contractors have enjoyed broad immunity from injured service members' lawsuits under a doctrine extending the federal government's battlefield protections to its private partners. On April 22, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the shield has limits: when the government doesn't order or authorize the conduct that caused the injury, the contractor is on its own.

Updated May 31

Rule Changes

Authored 7-justice majority opinion

For more than a decade, major record labels have tried to make internet service providers pay for their subscribers' music piracy. On March 25, 2026, the Supreme Court shut that door unanimously. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for a 9-0 court, held that a company providing internet service cannot be held liable as a copyright infringer simply because it knows some customers will use that service to download music illegally.

Updated May 30

Rule Changes

Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court

Federal courts have debated for decades whether restitution is criminal punishment or a civil remedy—a distinction that matters because the Constitution's Ex Post Facto Clause bars retroactive increases in criminal punishment. On January 20, 2026, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled restitution under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act is criminal punishment, so defendants cannot be held to payment terms that didn't exist when they committed their crimes.

Updated May 22

Rule Changes

Author of the 8-1 majority opinion

For 23 years after Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act, every president from Clinton to Obama waived Americans' right to sue companies for using property Cuba seized in 1959. Thursday's 8-1 Supreme Court ruling reinstated the right to sue and revived a $440 million judgment against four cruise lines that docked in Havana between 2016 and 2019.

Updated May 22

Rule Changes

Wrote separate dissent calling to overrule Atkins

Joseph Clifton Smith has been on Alabama's death row since 1997. His five IQ tests came back at 72, 74, 74, 75, and 78. On Thursday, the Supreme Court dismissed Alabama's appeal in Hamm v. Smith, letting stand a lower-court finding that Smith is intellectually disabled and cannot be executed.

Updated May 21

Rule Changes

Wrote majority opinion in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton

A federal judge blocked Texas from forcing Apple and Google to verify every app store user's age, calling the law akin to requiring ID checks at bookstore doors. This December 2024 ruling is the latest defeat in a wave of state attempts to age-gate the internet.

Updated May 16