Clarence Thomas had the perfect opportunity today to do the right thing by recusing himself from a key hearing on the former POTUS’s standing in the 2024 campaign for president.

Sadly, but not surprisingly, the associate justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, didn’t recuse himself. He sat there with his colleagues and will take part in a ruling involving whether the ex-POTUS is eligible to run for office in accordance with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

The conflict of interest is as clear as it gets.

Thomas’s wife, Virginia, is a member of the MAGA cult that embraces the rants of the 45th POTUS. She attended a gathering that developed on the D.C. Ellipse the morning of Jan. 6, 2021. The Former Guy exhorted the crowd — after Mrs. Thomas had left — to take back the government.

They stormed the Capitol and damn near overran the U.S. government in the process.

Colorado supreme court justices ruled that the ex-POTUS was ineligible to run for office because he took part in the effort to overthrow the government and gave ”aid and comfort” to those who stormed the Capitol.

Mrs. Thomas was part of the mob. She clearly had to have spoken to her husband, Justice Thomas, about the events of that day. In my view, Justice Thomas’s judicial integrity was compromised by his wife’s presence in the crowd.

He damn sure should have recused himself. But … he did no such thing.

Justice Thomas has ruled in favor of the ex-POTUS’s arguments already, even when he has been in the minority among justices. Of course, I have no hard knowledge that his decisions were influenced by his wife. Still, his participation in these legal matters just doesn’t pass the proverbial smell test.

Indeed, it stinks to high heaven … and beyond!

The court will decide soon whether the Colorado ruling will stand. My sense is that the court will side with the former POTUS and allow his name to return to that state’s ballot.

The very notion, though, of Justice Clarence Thomas taking part in this judicial matter simply makes me sick.