Justice Thomas’s Court?

Back in the day, that would be Worcester, Massachusetts in the late 60’s and early 70’s, there was this guy at Holy Cross: his name was Clarence Thomas. Also back in the day, many of us, who where local townies, referred to Holy Cross as “Holy Crotch.” I know, how rude and crude! But it seemed so right then. I also have to admit that one of my favorite guys went there as well, and he was, like the infamous Ted Wells (of Scooter Libby fame), a member of the class of ‘72. And it seemed to me at the time that our potential SCOTUS Junior Justice followed him, my favorite guy, not Ted, around like a puppy. I thought at the time that was because my favorite guy, who shall remain nameless, was a really smart, and politically connected and committed activist in those wonderful days. I, also, thought that at the time our potential Junior Justice was a lackluster opportunist.

You know how you have first impressions and sometimes the individual in question never does anything to change that feeling: that was our potential Junior Justice. Now I am not saying that I knew him on anything other than a truly superficial level, as that seemed to me to be his level, not to mention the level of my interest. I could have been wrong as he did end up marrying one of Mr. Ambush’s lovely and beautiful daughters (though that marriage didn’t last.) So, there had to be some there, there. I just never saw it. So, he drifted out of my mind.

Fast forward some 20 years: during the confirmation hearings I was glued to the tube. I remember talking to a “townie sister” of mine from the old town during the hearings as we both watched with rapt attention. I said to her that there was something so oddly familiar about this nominee. She, who has a steel trap for a mind unlike me, set me straight with the comment that he was “the C***p from the Crotch.” WOAH! I had completely forgotten that some folks had actually called him that. But I knew immediately who she was talking about as his presence drifted back into my mind after all those years.

That said, I am not shocked at all at his jurisprudence’s evolution, or lack there of, on the highest court in the land. Once a wannabe opportunist, always a wannabe opportunist! Chock this up to first impressions that were never assuaged. The question has always been what does he “wannabe?”

Here is a taste of Adam Cohen’s piece on the Junior Justice:

In the last 100 Supreme Court arguments, Clarence Thomas has not uttered a word. Court watchers have suggested a variety of explanations. Among the least flattering: he is afraid that if he speaks he will reveal his ignorance about the case; he is so ideologically driven that he invariably comes with his mind made up; or he has contempt for the process.

In their provocative new book, “Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas,” two Washington Post journalists, Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher, ponder Justice Thomas’s extraordinary silence, and many other puzzles. They offer a wealth of insight, but they have no answer to the central enigma he poses: why the justice who has faced the greatest hardships regularly rules for the powerful over the weak, and has a legal philosophy notable for its indifference to suffering.

It is a particularly timely question. For 15 years, Justice Thomas was a marginal figure, rarely assigned to write major opinions because his views were so far right that he would have had trouble attracting five votes. But Justice Thomas is a lot less marginal with the recent changes in the court — particularly the replacement of Sandra Day O’Connor, a moderate conservative, with Samuel Alito, a more extreme one. He appears poised in the next few weeks to achieve his longstanding goal: dismantling the integrationist vision of his predecessor Thurgood Marshall.

Justice Thomas’s early years were not as hardscrabble as his image-makers suggested during his confirmation; he left tiny Pin Point, Ga., young, and was raised in a middle-class home. But he grew up in the Jim Crow South, with an absent father and an often-absent mother. He spent much of his childhood, the authors say, being “angry and hurt.”

In college and law school, he identified strongly with his fellow blacks, and was liberal, even radical, on racial issues. But as he accepted jobs from Republicans eager to hire a conservative black lawyer, he shifted rightward. As chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, his phlegmatic advocacy for victims of discrimination disappointed civil rights activists, while impressing conservatives looking for a replacement for Justice Marshall.

His confirmation hearings, at which Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment, put an even sharper edge on his ideology. He redirected his anger, much of which had been aimed at whites, at liberals and civil rights organizations. Justice Thomas is now beloved on the far right, with friends like Rush Limbaugh, whose wedding he performed.

Justice Thomas wasted no time unveiling his harsh jurisprudence. In his first year on the court, he dissented from a decision holding that the ban on cruel and unusual punishment may have been violated when guards kicked a prisoner and punched him in the stomach, eye, and mouth. The prisoner had a split lip, bruises and loosened teeth, but Justice Thomas insisted that the Constitution did not prohibit such “insignificant harm.” He dissented from a ruling in favor of a prisoner who was handcuffed to a hitching post in the hot sun for seven hours while a guard taunted him about his thirst.

Clarence, what happened from your time at the Cross and your liberal wannabe aspirations to put you so far right that you no longer understand “cruel and unusual punishment?” Does the Right-Wing reward their folks with better perks?

Read all of Cohen’s piece it is so troubling.

But then, many of us were troubled in 1991. I know, the Dirty Rotten Hippies! And I admit it!

PS If anyone out there remembers this differently please give me a call. I am always up to corrections as my mind is so “Swiss Cheese.” Though, I have to tell you that everyone that I have checked with so far confirms my version. Just Saying!