Does Justice Clarence Thomas want to overturn a landmark freedom of the press ruling? | Larry Tribe and Dennis Aftergut

On Monday, the supreme court justice issued a worrying signal about his commitment to maintaining press freedoms

On Monday, tucked away in a busy news cycle, was a quiet, subtle but no less terrifying judicial development. US supreme court Justice Clarence Thomas laid out the formula for destroying the free press.

Thomas dissented to denial of certiorari in Coal Ridge Ministries Media v Southern Poverty Law Center with an opinion giving us more than a hint of precisely what he has in store. Freedom of the press has a rightwing target on its back. Thomas wrote that the court should revisit" the landmark free press case of the 20th century, New York Times v Sullivan.

Laurence H Tribe is the Carl M Loeb University professor emeritus and a professor of constitutional law emeritus at Harvard Law School. Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor, is currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy.