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Name:
Clarence Thomas
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Dates:
Born: June 23, 1948 in Pin Point, Georgia (near Savannah)
Died: n/a
Graduated from Yale law school: 1974
Chairman of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): 1982
Washington, D.C., Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals: 1990
Appointed to Supreme Court: July 1, 1991
Anita Hill's allegations made public: October 8, 1991
Confirmed by Senate (52-48): October 15, 1991
Sworn in: October 23, 1991
Biography:
Clarence Thomas has become something of a lightning rod on the Supreme Court, both
for issues of race and for the liberal/conservative disputes. While in law school he was
offended at the assumptions made by whites that he was there as a "token" black on
account of affirmative actions, a feeling which shaped much of what he would come to
believe regarding race and rights in the United States.
Because Thomas was a black conservative, he was relatively unusual and this brought him to the attention of the Reagan administration. He was appointed as chairman of the EEOC where he regularly came into conflict with established civil rights groups which believed in the value of affirmative action. Under his control, the EEOC shifted attention from large class action lawsuits to individual suits based upon individual instances of discrimination. This was based upon the assumption that discrimination, where it exists, only continues to occur on the individual level rather than across broad swaths of society
In 1990 Clarence Thomas was appointed to the Washington, D.C., Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, by President George Bush appointed Thomas. This is a common stepping stone to the Supreme Court and he filled the seat vacated by Robert Bork whose nomination to the Supreme Court was spectacularly unsuccessful. Thomas was on this court for only a year and, during this time, he wrote only twenty opinions - none of them on anything controversial.
Despite this lack of judicial experience, Bush nominated him to the Supreme Court to replace retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall. According to Bush, Clarence Thomas' race had absolutely nothing to do with being chosen - a claim believed by practically no one. Also incredible was Thomas' claim that he had never, ever debated the contents of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that had legalized abortion. That decision was handed down while Thomas was a law student and there is simply no sound basis to believe that he, like all the other law students, wasn't actively engaged in discussing it. The few times that Thomas did admit to having an opinion about past Supreme Court cases, he was just as often wrong about them as he was correct.
Thomas' nomination hearings in the Senate went smoothly until Anita Hill came forward and revealed her accusations that Thomas had engaged in sexual harassment while she was working for him. According to Hill, Thomas kept asking her out on dates, bragged about his sexual prowess, and talked about scenes from pornographic movies. Her case was weakened by the fact that, even after she was able to escape from him, she continued to initiate contact and even followed him to another job when he moved on from the EEOC.
Thomas was finally confirmed by the Senate, but only by a 52-48 margin, the smallest by which any justice has been confirmed in this century. By many reports, Thomas continues to harbor a deep and burning hatred toward those who participated in what he called a "high-tech lynching" and, according to some, his judicial decisions reflect a personal bias and animosity towards those liberal groups which opposed his nomination. Clarence Thomas has voted mostly with Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia, thus aligning himself with the Court's most conservative justices.
Thomas is also known for speaking very little during oral arguments before the Court. Thomas seems to believe that such arguments amount to very little and apparently reaches his decisions without any direct, personal input from the lawyers involved. Finally, Thomas has become a popular speaker at conservative forums - more so than any other conservative judge. The Judicial Code of Conduct prohibits judges from "being a speaker or guest of honor at an organization's fund-raising events or making speeches for political organizations," but Thomas has never shown any particular interest in that provision. Fortunately for him that provision does not technically apply to the Supreme Court; unfortunately, that was apparently because no one thought it necessary to tell Supreme Court justices what is and is not ethical for them to do.
Also Known As: none
Alternate Spellings: none
Common Misspellings: none
Related Resources:
What are Political and Legal Philosophy
The Philosophy of Politics and the Philosophy of Law are often studied separately, but they are presented here jointly because they both come back to the same thing: the study of force. Politics is the study of political force in the general community, while jurisprudence is the study of how laws can and should be used to achieve political and social goals.What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?
