The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has raised many questions and left the fate of the Supreme Court up in the air, especially since the GOP is flat-out refusing to allow President Obama s potential nominees through, no matter who they might be. However, Scalia s sudden demise also had another unintended   and very unexpected   effect: it made notoriously silent Justice Clarence Thomas open his mouth for the first time in literally a decade.The case before the court involved the 1996 law that stopped domestic abusers from owning firearms again. Being the staunch conservative that he is, Thomas didn t agree with this, and seemed to imply that wife beaters should be able to own guns, despite the very good reasons for prohibiting them from doing so. So, Thomas s first utterance on the court in the last ten years was also incredibly stupid. He asked: Can you give me another example where a misdemeanor suspends a constitutional right permanently? There was an audible gasp of surprise from the court; after all, many folks there probably don t even know what Clarence s voice sounds like. But, now, we understand why he didn t speak. He s clearly a f*cking moron. As Winning Democrats reports, Thomas decided to go to bat for the gun rights of violent men and engaged in the following tit-for-tat with Ilana Eisenstein, a Justice Department attorney: You re saying that a misdemeanor conviction results in a lifelong ban on possessing a gun,  Thomas said.  Which at least right now is a constitutional right. In these cases, did any of the petitioners use a weapon? Eisenstein responded that they had not. So it is not directly related  to the original crime, Thomas asked.Well, it seems that with Scalia gone, Thomas will be the one to fight for the rights of abusers everywhere to go on and kill the partners they victimize. Way to carry a monumentally stupid and dangerous torch, Justice Thomas. Shame on you.Featured image via screen capture from DailyNebraskan