Clarence Thomas: Nobody Knows the Trouble He's Seen

You have to feel sorry for the judge. Like George Bush he has failed upwards until the poor guy is now hopelessly out of his league. Unlike our president, however, he doesn't have to pretend to understand the complexities of his job for just eight years and then retire to the back nine. Poor Clarence is stuck there for life. He seems caught in some sort of chilling Twilight Zone episode, cursed for what he wished for. His new memoir, My Grandfather's Son,"is yet another sad chapter in his lifetime of self-hate.

Am I being too hard or condescending on what should be one of the wisest people in the nation? How else do you explain his terror of asking a single question from the bench? His excuse is that the other justices "talk too much."

It's called doing their job.

They arrive with questions that need to be answered, instead of dogma that needs to be adhered to. Justice Thomas is clearly that terrified kid in every class that knows that if he opens his mouth everyone will realize that he didn't understand today's lesson. Instead of being a beacon of pride for young black kids that, like him, might have been raised in poverty, he is an embarrassment.

His supporters point to his writings, but back in his chambers he is backed up by clerks who are some of our very smartest legal minds. Kato Kaelin could sign off on their briefs and sound like he knew what he was talking about.

George Bush the First's appointment of a black man who was patently unqualified to the highest bench is exactly what affirmative action is not supposed to be about. The point is to open up gatekeepers like elite law schools and medical schools. Once the students graduate, however, they, and every other job applicant has to rise to a certain standard. My sister is a heart surgeon. Nobody is going to let her cut somebody open just to fill a quota. She has to be excellent at what she does. The bar for a lifetime appointment to our highest bench should have been just as high.

My mom went to Yale law school a few years after Thomas, after having graduated Magna Cum Laude from Howard. She was a thirty-five-year-old black mother of two teenaged kids. She knew she was brilliant, the best of the best, and thrilled at debating the other students. She never once said, "Oh, I'm only here because they needed a brown body. I really belong at the DeVry College of Law."

And that's how she raised me. Old school. Yes, racism still exists, she would tell me. So a B+ might do for the white boys, but you have to be that much better. How pathetic is it that Clarence Thomas writes that he graduated from Yale Law School with his head hanging low, convinced that the world knew that his diploma came with an asterisk of inferiority? When my mom's friends graduated they burst out of law school ready to kick ass and take names.

The most odious part of Thomas's memoir is his continued insistence that his contentious confirmation hearings elevate him to the canon of tragic black heroes like Native Son's Bigger Thomas and To Kill a Mockingbird's Tom Robinson. As Jane Meyer and Jill Abramson clearly demonstrate in their book, Strange Justice, Anita Hill was only one of several and Thomas, now one of the nine highest judges in our nation, lied repeatedly during his confirmation hearings. The bitterness that seems to be eating away at him and spews out of this book might stem from the fact that he was the head of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission while he was sexually harassing Anita Hill and he is now sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America because he lied his ass off in the United States Senate.

Comments

[TheOtherMaven]

The only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner - and it doesn't matter whether the whiner is white, black, yellow, green, or purple with pink polka dots.

[rjcrane]

What may be even worse than this is that we have a Senate more concerned with supporting one of their own no matter how unqualified for the job they are. This was evident in how certain Senators marginalized and effectively demeaned the testimony of Anita Hill in order to support this clown. What's worse too is that these same Senators seem more concerned with giving their own canned speeches to the camera versus grilling these candidates with hard pointed questions and forcing them to answer without giving programmed answers.

What's worse is that Clarence Thomas' frequent trips to the local porno movie rental shop didn't get the proper consideration it should have given Anita Hill's claims of sexual harassment.

What's worse is that most of the Senators on the Judiciary Committee at the time, actually believed that Thomas hadn't either discussed Roe v Wade before his Senate testimony nor had formed any opinion about this ruling and allowed him to avoid having to give a truthful answer.

But in all honesty so much of the confirmation process of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court was so dreadful it's hard to decide what's worse. What we do know is that legal acumen doesn't have to play much of a role in these nominations.

RJ Crane, editor
topplebush.com

[mcnary]

This guy should be playing golf with O. J.

[vcmerson]

Thank you so much, Trey Ellis, for your article & saying what YOU think.
It doesn't give me permission to be biased but it does give me permission as a WASP not to feel guilty for what I think.
Victoria
[e-mail]

[booker52]

I remember the hearings. I still cannnot believe they confirmed him. I believe he is a very hateful person. Anyone who would put a 15 cent sticker on their Yale diploma has problems!! All that tells me about him is that he won't deal with is problems. He will blame everyone else.

[TXfemmom]

Thomas was and is the least qualified, in terms of experience and judgement, of all the Supreme Court Judges in recent history.

He had less than a year as a judge, and had never really practiced law before that.

Then, after saying that affirmative action and crying racism holds back blacks, he played that card when he called the confirmation hearings a high-tech lynching. It was not a lynching. There were serious problems in his experience, and in his psyche, just watching him on 60 minutes told anyone that he needs to be under some serious mental health care, and he and the Republicans used claims of racism to get him appointed.

Clarence Thomas is a very flawed man, too flawed for the Supreme Court.

[bumpersticker]

Thomas is what he is. Resentment is something we each have to get beyond, or else we become what we resent.

The greater sadness here is that the hallowed Offices of government have been sallowed by political expediency. The Offices of President, Supreme Court Judge, Attorney General, etc should be hallowed and not filled by agenda or the need to win. "We're #1" changes respect and honor to a trophy and a playpen.

There were serious issues of Thomas's character. The respect for the position should have excused him from consideration, and Clarence Thomas could have gone on being Clarence Thomas.

[Janus]

And now comes Justice Thomas sixteen years later venting his spleen about his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In those days, I found myself in utter disbelief that Bush 41 called him the best man in the Country to replace Thurgood Marshall. Still more shocking to me was then-Senator Jack Danforth's sponsoring him and taking him around for courtesy calls on the senators. Perhaps it was because Thomas had served in previous years with Danforth as Missouri's attorney general and then later (possibly with Danforth's recommendation) as counsel for Monsanto Chemical Corporation.

What was so incredible to me (and I'm sure tens of thousand others) was Thomas's testimony that he never discussed Roe v. Wade with any other of the Yale law students despite the significance of this milestone case which was published while Thomas was actually attending Yale Law as a student. He should have been finished as a nominee at this point.

Ultimately, Thomas was approved by the Senate membership 52-48, the closest and lowest Supreme Court confirmation vote in history.

I agree with the late Federal Judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr, of the 3rd Circuit, who wrote an open letter to Thomas which was published in 140 University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Number 3. In my opinion, Higginbotham, a Yale Law graduate and fine judge, would have been a far superior choice, but I doubt that the ultra right-winger crowd in those days even considered him in the first instance.

Here is the pdf address for reading the letter:

http://www.rbvincent.com/pdf.files/Thomas_Higginbotham.pdf

[Dandrea]

Media spinners have been painting a picture of Clarence Thomas as the black Horatio Alger. I thank Trey Ellis for bringing us back to reality.

I recommend that readers take the time to go to the above link provided by Janus. This, will in a few pages, tell you why CT demonstrates shamefully how he still doesn't get it. Excellent link.

[rmreddicks]

Thanks for the link.

[FreedomCorpse]

It seems like republicans appoint people to the supreme court for the express purpose of calling on them for a big favor sometime later down the road like the 2000 election problems in Florida. What favor are they going to ask of alito and roberts someday...­gas chambers for dissidents? I can just hear it now 'oh its in the interest of national security'

[Nyla785]

Thomas seems to hold onto his anger about the Anita Hill accusation a little too much. If he were truly innocent would nurse that rage and resentment so much?? Or would it take it in stride as a demonstration of the frequent injustice in life and move on to become a more outward-looking decision-maker? You gotta wonder.

[libgma]

To imply that Thomas is intelectually unfit is to yield to Thomas own life view. His behavior in whining about the difficulties is unbecoming. He won, cannot he be gracious in victory, evidently not. He is not the first to be confirmed after hearings that were a bloodbath. His judicial philosophy is antedeluvian, however it should be enough to point out that he has no comfort in his victory. He shows the attitudes of an intilectual parvenu. Had he a spine he would not need to lash at at his enemies. He has neither gratitude nor graciousness.

[TJoad]

“His judicial philosophy is antediluvi­an.”

Well said. In addition, his “judicial philosophy” is more like judicial sophistry, as evidenced by many of his absurdist dissenting opinions. For instance, in a dissent a few years ago, he had argued that nothing in the Constitution stands in the way of the individual states establishing their own state religions, because in his twisted "understanding" of the Constitution only the federal government is prohibited from establishing a government endorsed religion. (See his dissent in Elk Grove Unified School Dist. V. Newdow, 542 U.S. 1 (2004)). So under Thomas’ view, the “Catholic Church of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts” or the “First Baptist Church of the State of Alabama” would be just fine under the Constitution. Not even Thomas’ sometime fellow bomb thrower Scalia was willing to swallow such pretzel logic, which is grounded in Thomas’ compulsion to lash out continually at liberals as payback for his perceived high tech lynching.

[janmB]

After 15 years, I had the opportunity to hear what Thomas and Anita Hill had to say.
Thomas is a bitter ol man and lives in denial that he was that bad. He was just being a "MAN" I suppose is what he excuses himself by.
Meanwhile, Anita Hill during her interview was a CLASS ACT and I would have preferred to see her on the Supreme Court than that ol guy that blames everyone else for the troubles he caused himself.

[TJoad]

Check out Prof. Anita Hill's rhetorical bitch-splapping of Injustice Thomas in today's NYT Op-Ed piece:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/opinion/02hill.html?hp

[Vixen0932]

And also...for him or anyone to fix their face and compare Thomas to the great Thurgood Marshall is crazy. Thomas couldn't walk two steps in Marshalls shoes....H­e's not as legally great as Justice Marshal and he not as honorable

[Vixen0932]

Mr. Ellis great post!
I am an aspiring atorney and as a proud black American. I did not know much about Clarence Thomas, except that he was from a town near where my grandparents grew up. After seeing 60 mins I realized that man is sick. You can tell he HATES being black and wants to get "back" at somebody somewhere for doing something to him. I felt a sense of sadnest when they spoke about his grandfather, who sounded like a great man. He seemed to try to teach him pride about being from a linage of slaves. To hear Thomas was in the Black Union was wacky to me. When he said that he law degree was worth 15 cents...i knew he was trippin!!! I mean, he went to Yale, no one knows how ge got in (we know now, but not really back then). He probably couldn't get a job after graduation because he had no people skills (and that he was black...lo­l). All in all he is a disgrace, I'm ashamed of him and not because he is a Republican now or that he is conservati­ve...becau­se he is a self-hating coon. I suprised they didn't mention is white wife. I mean you sexually harrass a black woman and marry a white woman...th­at says alot....

[TomR]

Anita Hill writes:

----
Regrettably, since 1991, I have repeatedly seen this kind of character attack on women and men who complain of harassment and discrimination in the workplace. In efforts to assail their accusers’ credibility, detractors routinely diminish people’s professional contributions. Often the accused is a supervisor, in a position to describe the complaining employee’s work as “mediocre” or the employee as incompetent. Those accused of inappropriate behavior also often portray the individuals who complain as bizarre caricatures of themselves — oversensitive, even fanatical, and often immoral — even though they enjoy good and productive working relationships with their colleagues.

Finally, when attacks on the accusers’ credibility fail, those accused of workplace improprieties downgrade the level of harm that may have occurred. When sensing that others will believe their accusers’ versions of events, individuals confronted with their own bad behavior try to reduce legitimate concerns to the level of mere words or “slights” that should be dismissed without discussion.

Fortunately, we have made progress since 1991. Today, when employees complain of abuse in the workplace, investigators and judges are more likely to examine all the evidence and less likely to simply accept as true the word of those in power. But that could change. Our legal system will suffer if a sitting justice’s vitriolic pursuit of personal vindication discourages others from standing up for their rights.
----

Ms. Hill mentions manipulation tactics by Clarence Thomas, which are a form of emotional abuse.

To learn more about manipulation tactics, on Amazon check out the book "In Sheep's Clothing: Understanding a Dealing With Manipulative People" by Dr. George K. Simon.

- Tom

[nolalily]

Feel sorry for Clarence Thomas? Are you kidding. The man is a total pig who's been given honors, protection, clout and prestige and who, further, has never done one constructive for humanity with these gifts except to feel embarrassed and sorry for himself.

How do we get rid of Supreme Court Justices anyway? Can we impeach, call for a resignation, sign a petition or what?

If he was really smart, he would have kept his damned mouth shut and never wrote this book. He should stayed in his hole where we'd forgotten about him.

[tlcutter]

nolalily, you are the PIG. And a racists pig.
What is your greatest accomplishment? To hide anonymously behind stupid racists remarks.

[dhfsfc]

Criticizing a black man, based on FACTS, is not racism. That is what Clarence Thomas does not understand. All sexual harassers believe that their victims are too sensitive. But he was also the highest government official in charge of enforcing sexual harassment laws. That is what made it so wrong.

And Clarence Thomas' "accomplishment" of getting to the Supreme Court was the result of reverse racism. He is not qualified to be there. Just look at his record of questioning petitioners at Supreme Court hearings. He demeans the Court.

[Honest George]

You have certainly let me know a little more about judge thomas. I despised him as a result of the Anita Hill Hi Tech lynching by thomas and the senators. He might be afraid to open his mouth now but I bet he thought he was a big man talking about Long Dong silver. Ms Hill should have spit on him.