Justice Clarence Thomas warns Americans against 'destroying our institutions' when they don't agree

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is warning about the possibility of Americans "destroying our institutions because they don't give us what we want, when we want it."

The statement came in the context of the justice arguing, in an address Thursday to several hundred students at the University of Notre Dame, that it is integral that the high court remain independent from political polarization.

"I think the media makes it sound as though you are just always going right to your personal preference. So if they think you are antiabortion or something personally, they think that’s the way you always will come out," said Thomas, at the Catholic university in South Bend, Indiana. He also said the American public has become "good at finding something that separates us."

The long-serving conservative justice said that treating justices and judges like political figures is a sure way to "jeopardize any faith in the legal institutions." 

"The court was thought to be the least dangerous branch and we may have become the most dangerous, and I think that's problematic," he said

Thomas maintains that his well documented Catholic faith has not come into conflict with some of the legal questions that have unfurled themselves before the court. "You do your  job and you go cry alone," he said. 

Earlier this month, Justice Amy Coney Barrett (the most recently appointed justice), said that it is necessary for members of the Supreme Court to be "hyper vigilant to make sure they're not letting personal biases creep into their decisions, since judges are people, too." 

"To say the court's reasoning is flawed is different from saying the court is acting in a partisan manner," she continued during a speech delivered at the University of Louisville's McConnell Center.

The high court is currently receiving some public backlash following its 5-4 decision not to block the controversial Texas law that effectively bans abortions in the state.

Thomas ruled with the majority in the decision and has previously called on the court to overturn Roe v. Wade, a decision that could be revisited in the coming months as the high court reviews a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks.