Clarence Thomas shocks supreme court by ending 10-year oral argument silence

Jessica Glenza in New York and agencies
Monday 29 February 2016 19.45 GMT

There were gasps at the US supreme court on Monday when Justice Clarence Thomas broke a 10-year silence, questioning an attorney for the first time since 22 February 2006.

The surprise inquiry from the conservative justice came in a case about Americans’ right to bear arms. The court was hearing oral arguments from a government attorney, who was defending a federal law that can bar domestic violence convicts from owning firearms.

Lawyer Ilana Eisenstein, an attorney for the US solicitor general’s office, was about to leave the lectern after answering a barrage of questions from other justices, when Thomas apparently caught her by surprise, asking whether the violation of any other law “suspends a constitutional right”.

Thomas’s question provoked an audible response from the audience, and caused Chief Justice John Roberts to “(swivel) his head in evident surprise”, according to one reporter present.

The justice asked several questions about constitutional gun rights, which no other justice had asked about. He said that the law being challenged allows someone convicted of a misdemeanor assault charge to receive a lifetime gun possession ban, “which at least as of now results in suspension of a constitutional right”.

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