I’ve really struggled over the
years about how much time and energy to give to
writing about Clarence Thomas. Some years ago, I
reviewed a scathing account of Thomas by former
Congressman William Clay in his book, “Clarence
Thomas: A Knight in Tainted Armor.” The chorus
to impeach Thomas has been growing louder since
the book was published in 2015. It’s time to
bring this tragic opera to an end.
It’s almost incomprehensible to
know that Thomas’ early politicization embraced
his Blackness. He abandoned the pursuit to
become a Catholic priest because he felt the
church wasn’t doing enough to fight racism. At
his undergraduate college, Thomas helped to
establish the Black Student Union. He engaged in
anti-war protests and sit-ins against racism. A
Malcolm X poster even hung in his dorm room.
I do not have the skill set to
analyze what happened to Thomas after he
graduated from Yale Law School in 1974; maybe
someone else has done the psychological
analysis. I do know that he ended up in my home
state of Missouri and morphed into a
self-loathing, misogynistic person void of moral
character.
When Justice Thurgood Marshall
retired from the High Court in 1991, then U.S.
Senator John Danforth from Missouri lobbied
President Bush to nominate Thomas for the open
seat. You should know that justice-loving people
in St. Louis fought like hell against the
nomination. We were fully aware of the
consequences his confirmation would have on the
country. A courageous Anita Hill did her part to
stop the confirmation as did many others,
especially civil rights and women’s groups. The
Senate approval vote was the thinnest margin in
over 100 years.
There was never an expectation
that Clarence Thomas could fill the big,
judicial shoes of Thurgood Marshall. Maybe there
was some reasonable thinking that Thomas had the
acumen to interpret the law based upon the
Constitution while staying independent from
special interests. He did not.
Justice Thomas rarely asked
questions from the bench during oral arguments.
According to Clay’s book on the muted justice,
he asked absolutely no questions for an entire
decade. The practice slowly changed when
COVID-19 forced the court sessions to be
videotaped. Was there no need to ask questions
because he had already been told which way to
rule?
Behind the scenes, Thomas was
talking plenty - to his sugar daddy, Harlan
Crow. For years, the billionaire has lavished
the Thomas family with private jet flights,
luxury vacations and more. Crow also paid for
the college tuition of a relative raised by the
Thomases. Obviously, all this to make sure Crow
had a friendly vote on the court when his cases
made their way up the chain. Thomas saw no need
to disclose the gifts or recuse himself. This is
corruption at the highest level of the judicial
system.
Congressman Bennie Thompson and
other Black folks have called the justice Uncle
Tom for years. Minnesota Attorney General Keith
Ellison once referred to Thomas as Stephen, the
house negro in the movie “Django Unchained.”
Thomas’ behavior is more than embarrassing
buffoonery. The name-calling may sully his
reputation in the annals of Black History, it
doesn’t stop his rulings.
There’s enough known evidence to
show that Thomas is unfit to serve in this
prestigious position. The House of
Representatives can impeach a Supreme Court
justice with a simple majority. Right now, the
Democrats have a slight numerical edge but who
knows what may happen in 2024. We must move
quickly to let our representatives know that
Uncle Thomas must be targeted for impeachment. A
clear message must prevail that judicial seats
are not up for sale.
The next battle in the war is
imposing term limits on the U.S. Supreme Court.
The country can’t endure a lifetime of justices
like Clarence Thomas.
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