Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas could have secured a "singular" place in American history. Instead, according to longtime Fox News political analyst Juan Williams, he is now headed for a "tragic" legacy that has become synonymous with the Supreme Court's decline in public trust.

Williams is a journalist best known for his decades as a political analyst at Fox News. As one of the few prominent liberal voices at the network, he has been more willing than many of his colleagues to criticize President Donald Trump and other figures in the modern Republican Party, a stance he also takes in his recurring columns for The Hill.

In his latest column for The Hill, Williams examined Thomas' legacy and influence as the justice sits just two years away from becoming the longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history. Nominated by President George H.W. Bush and seated in 1991 as only the second Black justice ever to serve on the court, succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas would surpass the record of William O. Douglas — who served more than 36 years, from 1939 to 1975 — if he stays on the bench for two more years. The column follows Sen. Ted Cruz's publication of a new book about Thomas.

"Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a singular figure in U.S. history," Williams wrote. "If he remains on the bench for the next two years, he will be the longest-serving justice in American history. But his singular place in history is now tragic."

He continued: "First, he is at the heart of a historic decline in public trust in the Supreme Court. Second, as the most powerful Black Republican in national politics, he has damaged trust in Black conservatives as a source of innovative thinking for dealing with racial problems." Public polling, including Gallup's, has recorded historic lows in trust in the court in recent years.

Williams noted that Thomas, long considered one of the court's most hardline conservative justices, has sided with some of the most controversial arguments ever presented to the modern court. Thomas was one of only two justices to support Trump's attempt to change mail-in voting rules in a way that would skew the midterm elections in his favor, and Williams wrote that the justice "will go into history books as the Black justice who voted to weaken the Voting Rights Act, opening the door to eliminating Black-majority districts this year as part of a GOP effort to hold the House."

Thomas and his ethical transgressions have also been at the center of growing calls for Supreme Court reform. "History will note that several Democrats running in the midterms appear focused on Thomas as they propose ethics codes, term limits and even adding more seats to the court to restore ideological balance," Williams explained. "That political push began after investigative reports showed Thomas accepted, without disclosure, luxury vacations, help with tuition for a relative and real estate funding for his mother from a wealthy Republican That legacy is at the heart of declining trust in the Supreme Court." The reports identified the benefactor as Dallas real estate billionaire Harlan Crow, a longtime friend of the justice. After they were published, the Supreme Court adopted its first formal code of conduct in November 2023 — though the code includes no enforcement mechanism, leaving binding ethics rules, term limits or any change in the court's size to Congress.