Should the Spouse of Clarence Thomas Get to Form a Political Lobbying Group?

In one of the departments where I worked, both members of a married couple had positions. The husband and wife each had their own office, their own vote, their own paycheck, and their own perks. There was a custom whereby the faculty members took turns providing lunch for the group of faculty and students who attended one of the brown bag meetings. For that occasion, the couple wanted to share a turn at providing the food, until they were called on it. (Okay, so I'm the one who made it an issue.) So on their two full salaries, the husband and wife would each pay half as much as I did for lunch. Hey, they're a couple.

I thought about that recently when I heard that Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is the founder and CEO of a new lobbying and political-organizing group, Liberty Central. Fearing that our country may be "headed for tyranny," she and her Tea-Party-allied group, she said, would fight "against the liberal Washington agenda."

Because of the recent controversial "Citizens United" case decided by the Supreme Court - with Clarence Thomas on the winning 5-4 side - Ginni Thomas's Liberty Central can raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations with little, if any, obligation to disclose its donors.

So do I think Ginni Thomas should be able to do all these things? Actually, yes. They are not my political cup of tea, but being married to a Supreme Court Justice should not curb her own freedoms.

However, I do not think that Ginni Thomas or any other married person should get to have her tea and drink it, too. According to NPR, Ginni Thomas declared, "I did not give up my First Amendment rights when my husband became a justice of the Supreme Court." Nor should she give up those rights or any other right afforded to every other citizen, just because she got married. But, neither should she get any special benefits just because she got married.

That, right there, is the problem. Every person who enters into a federally-recognized marriage becomes an instant winner of some 1,138 federal benefits, protections, and rights. You get those benefits simply because you got married. Remember, we're not talking about caring for children or any other dependents here. Marriage is your membership card, not parenthood.

In Chapter 12 of Singled Out, I described some of those perks available only to married people. Here are just a few paragraphs from that section:

EXCERPT FROM PAGES 224-225 OF SINGLED OUT:

When you get married, you get the equivalent of a government-issued two-for-one coupon pack. If one spouse is eligible for Medicare or Medicaid, the other probably is, too. If you immigrate legally and you are married, your spouse can probably join you. If you are in the military, you have commissary privileges; if you are married, so does your spouse. If one spouse is a veteran, both spouses get plots in veterans' cemeteries.

If bad things happen to you and you are married, sometimes your spouse is entitled to special consideration on the basis of your misfortune. When bad things happen to single people, forget about it - often, no one qualifies for compensation. Let's start with the gravest of bad things - death. I've already mentioned Social Security benefits for the surviving spouses and ex-spouses of workers who were married. There are also special survivor benefits for the spouses of railroad workers, longshoremen, harbor workers, coal miners who died of black lung disease, veterans, public safety officers killed on the job, and federal employees.

If you were killed as a result of negligence, then regardless of your marital status, your parents or children can sue in state court for wrongful death. If you were married, then one more person is qualified to complain - your surviving spouse. Legally speaking, it is as if the death of a single person is not quite as wrongful as the death of a married person.

The federal government seems to have a special fondness for married people who are rich, and have homes, properties, and big-time estates. When wedded people die, they can pass along any amount of money or property to their spouse, totally tax free.

END OF EXCERPT

The set of 1,138 federal benefits and protections are just one of the items in the Married Couples gift basket. Every time a married couple such as the Thomas's (with their two salaries) get a cheaper-by-the-couple rate on car insurance, travel packages, club memberships, or anything else, they are being subsidized by all the single people who are paying full price. Married couples are also treated preferentially in the housing market (Wendy Morris and Stacey Sinclair and I showed that in a series of studies), the workplace, the military, and the health care system. (Documentation is in Singled Out.)

So Ginni Thomas, sure - start your own Tea Party or lobbying group or any other organization you'd like to preside over as CEO. Don't let your marriage stand in your way. But if you are going to have your own office and your own vote and your own paycheck and your own perks apart from your husband's, then I and the millions of other single Americans shouldn't have to subsidize your lunch.

[Note: I've been trying to post this since last week, but persistent technical difficulties and/or computer problems made that impossible. When you don't hear from me for a while (or even when you do), check out my posts at Conducive Chronicle. I just started blogging there, but so far, I have not had any problems trying to post. I had plans to start catching up with topics left hanging, such as the critique of the Atlantic article and the question of what you would do about a speaker at a meeting who assumes that everyone comes in couples, but that got eaten up with the time spent on trying to post this. I'm also behind on responding to the individual emails many of you have sent to me, but be patient. I always love hearing from you, and I will get back to you eventually, I promise!]