Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has recused himself from cases before the court 54 times since 1993, including 17 times to avoid the potential perception of a conflict of interest created by his son, according to records collected by the group Fix The Court.

Thomas is currently under fire for failing to recuse himself from cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection after text messages from his wife, Virginia (Ginni) Thomas, to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows revealed her active participation in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Initially, Meadows voluntarily disclosed the messages to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Later, on Dec. 7, 2021, he stopped cooperating with the committee and claimed executive privilege to prevent further disclosures.

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 against assertions of executive privilege by ex-President Donald Trump and his ex-aides, including Meadows. Thomas cast the lone vote of dissent in the case. Now, its clear that the disclosures in question could have provided more evidence of his wifes involvement in the plot to overthrow the results of the 2020 election.

Thomas past recusals show that he is not ignorant of the rules outlining when federal judges must disqualify themselves from participating in a case.

Theres a range of reasons judges recuse themselves from legal proceedings. The most common ones are prior participation in a case as a judge or prior employment at an entity involved in a given case. Judges are also meant to recuse themselves from cases in which they are a named party.

Since 1993, Thomas has recused himself at least 19 times from 18 different cases for either being named in the petition, having previously heard the case as an appeals court judge, or because his former employer was named as a party.

Judges are also required to recuse themselves from cases where their impartiality might reasonably be questioned, when they have a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or when it [i]s known by the judge to have an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.

There is, however, no mechanism to compel justices to recuse themselves from cases.

This relevant section of the U.S. legal code on judicial recusals is the one Thomas abided by when he recused himself 17 times from seven cases involving either his sons university or employer.

In 1995, Thomas recused himself at multiple stages during the Virginia v. U.S. case challenging Virginia Military Institutes male-only admission policy. Thomas son attended the institute at the time.

Thomas also recused himself from six cases involving the bank Wachovia from 2004-2007 because his son worked at Wachovia Securities.

The Wachovia cases, those are the real interesting ones, said Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix The Court, because he is recusing due to an interest of a family member. Thats textbook Supreme Court recusal.

But Thomas has never recused himself from a case where a potential conflict of interest may exist involving his wife. The issue has come up over the past decade when her career as a conservative political activist intersected with cases on which he would rule.