2 Early career

He served as Assistant Attorney General of Missouri from 1974- 1977, an attorney with Monsanto from 1977- 1979, and Legislative Assistant to Senator John Danforth from 1979- 1981.

In 1981, he began his rise through the Reagan administration. From 1981- 1982, he served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the US Department of Education, and as Chairman of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1982-1990. Thomas cautiously accepted these assignments aware of the public thrust for placing minorities in government positions.

He became a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990.

3 Appointment

In 1991, upon the resignation of Thurgood Marshall, President George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas to replace him. This was widely considered a move in the conservative direction for the court. His selection as a justice also preserved the presence of a black justice on the court.

Organizations including the NAACP, the Urban League, and the National Organization for Women opposed his appointment to the Supreme Court because of his criticism of affirmative action and supposed anti- abortion position. In response to the anti-abortion assertion, Thomas reiterated that he had not developed a stance on the Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion. Others thought he was unqualified, having served only two years as a federal judge. He was the first nominee since 1970 ( Harrold Carswell ) to not receive a "well qualified" rating from the American Bar Association judicial evaluation committee, although he did receive a rating of "qualified".

The Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Thomas about his political opinions and constitutional interpretation over several days. Toward the expected end of the confirmation hearings, Democratic staffers for the committee leaked to the media the contents of an FBI report which alleged that a former colleague of Thomas, University of Oklahoma law school professor Anita Hill, had accused him of sexually harassing her when the two had worked together at the US Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ( EEOC).

Hill was summoned to testify before the committee, and the hearings were broadcast on national television. When questioned about the allegations, Thomas emotionally called the hearings "a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks," a charge which brought Thomas sympathy and effectively blunted the assault against him. Thomas avoided answering the charges directly until forced to do so; ultimately he rested on a blanket denial of all the accusations. The chief objection to Hill's claims was that she did not register her complaint promptly, which Hill's advocates argue is characteristic behavior in women encountering sexual harassment.

In the end, the Committee did not find sufficient evidence to corroborate Anita Hill's claim. Hill's supporters insisted relevant testimony from Angela Wright, a PR director for the EEOC and a witness to the alleged offensive conduct, was suppressed. Thomas was confirmed by the Senate with a 52-48 vote on October 15, 1991. He took his seat on October 23, 1991.

4 Judicial philosophy

On the Court, Thomas has argued for an "originialist" view of the Constitution faithful to that document's text and history. Although Thomas frequently votes with Justice Antonin Scalia, Thomas's reasoning for his decisions, as expressed in his opinions, sometimes diverge from Scalia's based on Thomas's alternative readings of Constitutional history.

In general, Thomas has been a proponent of an expansive First Amendment interpretation, arguing that anonymous speech, money donated to political campaigns, and commercial speech attempting to sell products all qualified for protection. In McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission ( 1995), Thomas agreed with a majority of the Court that a law banning anonymous campaign literature violated the First Amendment. Scalia disagreed. He argued that the evidence was insufficient to conclude there was an original understanding and noted the wide popular support for laws against it. But while the Court majority based its decision on the fact that anonymity has "played an important role in the progress of mankind", Thomas filed a concurrence arguing that protection of anonymous speech was part of the original understanding of the amendment, noting that The Federalist Papers were published anonymously.

He has also taken the point of view that the Commerce Clause should be narrowly interpreted, covering only actual interstate commerce, not things related to it; he thus concurred with the Court's decisions in United States v. Lopez invalidating a federal law prohibiting possession of a firearm in a school zone.

Thomas has also defended firm interpretations of the Second Amendment, suggesting in United States v. Printz that the Brady Act 's background checks may have violated it.

Thomas has drawn the ire of many liberal critics for his narrow construction of the Eighth Amendment. In Hudson v. McMillan ( 1992), he dissented, arguing that the beating of a Louisiana inmate by three prison guards was not cruel and unusual punishment. Thomas wrote that the beating, which left Hudson with loosened teeth, facial bruises, and a cracked dental plate, did not cause sufficient harm to meet the constitutional standard. "In my view, a use of force that causes only insignificant harm to a prisoner may be immoral, it may be tortious, it may be criminal ... but it is not 'cruel and unusual punishment'".

Thomas has carved out a distinctive voice for himself on the highly-charged racial issues before the Court. In Missouri v. Jenkins ( 1995), the Court overturned a lower court ruling forcing the city of Kansas City, Missouri to spend more money on their predominantly black school system to attract white suburban children. Thomas filed a separate concurrence where he argued "'Racial isolation' itself is not a harm; only state-enforced segregation is," and that integration assumed that blacks could not get ahead on their own.

In Adarand Constructors v. Peña ( 1995), Thomas spoke out against affirmative action. "There can be no doubt that racial paternalism and its unintended consequences can be as poisonous and pernicious as any other form of discrimination." he wrote.

In United States v. Fordice ( 1992), he agreed that Mississippi had not done enough to desegregate its colleges and universities. But he added that increased integration could hurt historically black colleges. "It would be ironic, to say the least, if the institutions that sustained blacks during segregation were themselves destroyed in an effort to combat its vestiges," he wrote.

In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris ( 2002), he voted to uphold an Ohio school voucher plan. "While the romanticized ideal of universal public education resonates with the cognoscenti who oppose vouchers, poor urban families just want the best education for their children, who will certainly need it to function in our high-tech and advanced society," he wrote. "As Thomas Sowell noted 30 years ago: Most black people have faced too many grim, concrete problems to be romantics."

5 Quotes

"Though being underestimated has its advantages, the stench of racial inferiority still confounds my olfactory nerves." ---Clarence Thomas

"This is not an opportunity to talk about difficult matters privately or in a closed environment. This is a circus. It is a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, as far as I am concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity-blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that, unless you kow-tow to an old order this is what will happen to you, you will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate, rather than hung from a tree." ---Clarence Thomas

6 Sources

• Supreme court official biography ( PDF format)
• Supreme Discomfort
• An Outline of the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas Controversy
• Out of Scalia's Shadow
• U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia
• A Conversation with Justice Thomas
• Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, BooksEnthsiast.com
• LookSmart - Clarence Thomas directory category
• Yahoo - Clarence Thomas directory category

Preceded by: Thurgood Marshall

Associate Justice

Succeeded by:

Thomas, Clarence Thomas, Clarence Thomas, Clarence Thomas, Clarence Thomas, Clarence

<Hide>