Chalk it up to Leap Day? For the first time in 10 years, Justice Clarence Thomas asked a question from the Supreme Court bench.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
As Huffington Post noted, Thomas on Monday spoke near the end of a hearing about issues of domestic abuse and the potential loss of gun rights.

“The morning’s first session was nearly over when Ilana Eisenstein, the assistant solicitor general arguing the government’s position, asked if any of the justices had any more questions for her. That’s when Thomas leaned forward and, in his booming baritone, launched a line of inquiry so far unexplored in the hourlong hearing.

“Can you give me another area [of law] where a misdemeanor violation suspends a constitutional right?” Thomas asked Eisenstein, who was arguing that a federal ban on gun ownership for people who are convicted of low-level domestic violence offenses at the state level should apply if the offense was committed “recklessly.”

Thomas asked 10 questions over 5 minutes, stunning press observers and others for breaking his self-imposed silence in oral arguments.

“If anything, Thomas’ questions on Monday could be read as a sign that he misses his late colleague Antonin Scalia — whose empty seat, ceremonially draped in black, is directly next to his. The last time the Supreme Court declined to review a case involving the Second Amendment — an assault weapons ban out of Illinois ‚ both Thomas and Scalia dissented together.”

The occasion was noted by others:

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