If you thought the criticism Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas have faced in recent months would keep them from the public eye, you’d be wrong.

Ginni Thomas, who just stepped down from the helm of Liberty Central, the conservative organization she helped found, has become a lobbyist, reports the New York Times.

The website of Mrs. Thomas’ new lobbying organization, Liberty Consulting, Inc., describes her as a “Washington insider” with 30 years experience and “ambassador to the Tea Party movement” who can unite new conservative activists with old school GOP conservatives.

Some legal ethicists said Thomas’ move to the lobbying realm could serve to only intensify questions about the ability of Justice Thomas to render unbiased rulings on issues such as campaign finance and the constitutionality of the health care law – issues about which Mrs. Thomas has been vocal.

“[He] should not be sitting on a case or reviewing a statute that his wife has lobbied for,” Monroe H. Freedman, a Hofstra Law School professor specializing in legal ethics told the Times. “If the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, that creates a perception problem.”

Justice Thomas doesn’t appear to be worried. At a series of speaking engagements in Naples, Fla., Thomas was “humorous” and “fun-living” as he spoke about everything from his Catholic religion to his beloved RV (which he drove to the Sunshine State).

But his main message, he said, was: “just do the right thing.”

“Don’t lose your faith, don’t lose your family, don’t lose your friends,” Thomas told a crowd at Ave Maria University, according to the Ave Herald.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 7th, 2011 at 9:07 am and is filed under Supreme Court. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.