"Of this I am certain: In the few hundred pages of his new book, Thomas has managed to undo years of effort by his colleagues to depoliticize the judicial branch."

Huh? Lithwick has built her career upon the thesis that Supreme Court decisions are inherently political exercises. Today, out of nowhere, in order to get in a shot at Justice Thomas, she suddenly believes that the other justices have been working for years to depoliticize the Court?

Basically, Lithwick is stretching to find a way to criticize Thomas that makes her sound wise, rather than petty. To her regular readers, though, this just seems too jarring and out-of-character to ring true.

Lithwick may have made a career out of saying the Court is political, but her comment was about Thomas undoing the Court's attempt to depoliticize the judicial branch. Those are two different things.

Yes the Court is political. And Yes, the Court tries to convince people that it is not and does not act on the political leanings of the justices who sit on the bench.

Lithwick's comment is not "out of nowherem", it is an observation of the Court.

@ Tom_Tildrum

Very good analysis and dead on. It's always amusing to see someone as partisan/ideologically bound as Lithwick is hoisted by her own petard. She's more 'politicized' than all the justices she writes about put togther!