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In 2004, you’ll recall, Thomas sued Page and the Chronicle on the grounds that Page had defamed him in a series of columns that accused him of working a “little political shimmy-shammy” — Page said Thomas let the Kane County state’s attorney off easy in a disciplinary case before the court in return for favors done to a Thomas ally in a judicial race. Last November a Kane County jury found for Thomas and awarded him $7 million — a sum the trial judge would later drop to $4 million.
An amended suit filed a few days ago bolsters the argument. It contends that the other justices were aware of Thomas’s beef with Page virtually from the day of the first column in May of 2003 — they were talking to Thomas about the matter and receiving written updates from the court’s press secretary. In a deposition, Justice Philip Rarick, now retired, recalled Thomas telling him “that he had been defamed, and that he was considering a lawsuit.” Justice Thomas Kilbride recalled telling Thomas that he thought the columns “were outrageous based on factually what I knew to be true that happened in the disciplinary matter. I know that Justice Thomas was upset about the accusations, and rightly so.” Justice Charles Freeman called the columns a “mark against the entire court.”
