Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was absent from the court Monday with no explanation.

Thomas, 75, also was not participating remotely in arguments, as justices sometimes do when they are ill or otherwise can’t be there in person.

Chief Justice John Roberts announced Thomas’ absence, saying that his colleague would still participate in the day’s cases, based on the briefs and transcripts of the arguments. The court sometimes, but not always, says when a justice is out sick.

Thomas was hospitalized two years ago with an infection, causing him to miss several court sessions. He took part in the cases then, too.

He is the longest serving of the current justices, joining the Supreme Court in 1991.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has a two-volume memoir coming out this fall, tracking his life from growing up in California to his 30 years on the court, when he cast key votes on landmark cases ranging from abortion to gay marriage to campaign finance.

Simon & Schuster announced Tuesday that Kennedy’s “Life and Law: The Early Years” and “Life and Law: The Court Years” will be published Oct. 1, as a boxed set and in individual editions, each around 320 pages. Kennedy was widely regarded as a moderate conservative who wrote the majority opinion on such closely divided cases as Obergefell v. Hodges, which found a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allowed corporations and other outside entities to spend unlimited money on election campaigns.

“In ‘Life and Law,’ he explains the why’s and how’s of judging,” Simon & Schuster’s announcement reads in part.

“The second volume is filled with moving portraits of Justices O’Connor, Rehnquist, Scalia and Ginsburg that go along with the account of how Kennedy decided his views in the landmark cases. But it is the first volume about his youth in Sacramento and his decade as a practicing lawyer that explains the judicial giant. Readers will see the child who turns into the man, who shaped America as much as any Washington figure in the 21st century.”

Kennedy, 87, noted in the preface to the first volume that his memoirs proved more expansive than originally planned.

“It was my intent (my right hand is raised to swear it so) to recount my earlier years in a summary way. But something happened on the way to the pencil,” he wrote. “More and more of my recollections turned to how our society and its mindset changed in fascinating ways from the ’40s and ’50s to the ’60s and then again in the ’70s. This seemed relevant to the dynamics that influenced me and our larger society.”

“As each day passes, we should strive to learn more about who we are and whom we should strive to become,” he added. “Writing a memoir is a formal way to do this.”

Kennedy was an associate justice from 1988-2018 and his arrival and departure proved equally newsworthy.

He was appointed to the court by President Ronald Reagan, but only after the Senate had voted down Reagan’s first choice, Robert Bork, and after the second choice, Douglas Ginsburg, withdrew amid reports he had smoked marijuana. When Kennedy announced in 2018 that he was stepping down, President Donald Trump nominated a former Kennedy law clerk, Brett Kavanaugh, who was narrowly approved by the Senate after contentious confirmation hearings that included allegations Kavanaugh had assaulted a high school acquaintance, Christine Blasey Ford.

Kennedy’s book will arrive soon after Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s memoir “Lovely One,” which comes out Sept. 3.

As the first female Native American federal judge, Diane J. Humetewa is frequently asked about growing up in two worlds: participating in school and social activities in Phoenix while adhering to the Hopi way of life as an enrolled member of the tribe.

“It’s one world in my view,” said Humetewa, who serves as a U.S. district judge in the District of Arizona. “I would do all the things that high school kids would do … but perhaps on the weekend we’d have to go to the reservation.”

Judge Humetewa is the subject of a new installment in the Pathways to the Bench video series in which judges talk about challenges they overcame on their way to service as a federal judge.

Growing up in an era when cultural uniqueness was rarely celebrated, Humetewa felt that she couldn’t share her cultural identity widely. She is gratified to see young people today freely sharing their multicultural lives and individuality.

Prior to her historic appointment to the federal bench in 2014, Humetewa was the first Native American woman to serve as a U.S. Attorney in 2007, in the District of Arizona.

A West Virginia Supreme Court justice who joined the bench following a 2018 corruption and impeachment scandal said Thursday that he will retire after his term ends next year.

Justice John Hutchison was appointed by Gov. Jim Justice to the seat vacated by convicted former Justice Allen Loughry, then won a 2020 special election to finish the remainder of Loughry’s term, which ends in December 2024.

Hutchison said he looks forward to spending time with his wife, son and grandchildren.

“When I came to the Court in January 2019 the judicial system was starting to come out of a very dark place,” Hutchison wrote in a letter to Chief Justice Beth Walker. “In the last five years the New Court has made amazing strides in reestablishing the integrity of the third branch of government.”

Hutchison served as a circuit judge in Raleigh County for 24 years prior to his appointment to the five-member Supreme Court. He and Justice attended Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley and played on the basketball team together. Hutchison swore in Justice as governor in January 2017.

Loughry was suspended from his seat over allegations that he repeatedly lied and used his public office for personal gain. He resigned after a federal jury convicted him on 11 charges, most involving mail and wire fraud over his personal use of state cars and fuel cards. He was released from prison in December 2020 after serving 20 months of a two-year sentence.

Loughry and three other justices were impeached in August 2018 over questions involving lavish office renovations that evolved into accusations of corruption, incompetence and neglect of duty. Some of the justices were accused of abusing their authority by failing to rein in excessive spending.

One justice retired after the House of Delegates approved impeachment charges against her and another retired prior to the impeachment hearings.

Walker was cleared of an impeachment charge at her Senate trial. Then, a temporary panel of justices ruled the impeachment efforts violated the separation of powers doctrine and that the Legislature lacked jurisdiction to pursue the trials. The U.S. Supreme Court in October 2019 left the ruling in place.

A federal judge on Monday extended his order that temporarily stops the Mississippi Supreme Court chief justice from appointing judges in the capital city of Jackson and the county where it’s located, both of which are majority-Black.

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate’s new order could last until June 9, giving attorneys time to further develop arguments about citizens’ right to elect judges.

Wingate heard hours of testimony Monday in a lawsuit filed by the national, state and local chapters of the NAACP, which challenges a state law that Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed in April.

The civil rights organization argues that the law passed by the majority-white and Republican-controlled state Legislature creates unequal treatment for residents of Jackson and Hinds County compared to residents of the rest of the state.

The capital city and Hinds County are both majority-Black and governed by Democrats. Carroll Rhodes, an attorney for the NAACP, asked in court: “Why single out Hinds County?”

Officials pushing the new law said during the legislative session that they were trying to curb crime. Opponents said the law stomps on local self-governance.

The law would expand state policing inside the city of Jackson and create a new court inside part of Jackson with a judge who would be appointed by the Mississippi chief justice. It would also allow the chief justice to appoint four judges to work alongside the four elected circuit court judges in Hinds County through 2026.

Monday’s arguments centered on how Mississippi judges are chosen — the most immediate question because the chief justice was supposed to appoint judges soon after the governor signed the law.

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