For the last 20 years, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been urging his colleagues to use a novel originalist approach to protecting constitutional rights. In a decision on Wednesday, Thomas revived his campaign and finally picked up a possible ally, but only one: Justice Neil Gorsuch.

In Timbs v. Indiana, the high court unanimously ruled that the Eighth Amendment clause barring the imposition of “excessive fines” applies to states as well as the federal government because of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Thomas and Gorsuch agreed with the result, but Thomas wrote: