Why do media polemicists such as Jeffrey Toobin continue their uninformed, unfair, and vitriolic attacks on Justice Clarence Thomas as he celebrates his 25th anniversary on the Supreme Court? Because all of their vicious, contemptuous criticism over the past two decades has done absolutely nothing to dissuade this great justice from upholding the Constitution and enforcing its guarantees of individual rights and liberties. Nothing has moderated his drive to uphold its limitations on the power of government, as originally understood and intended by the Framers.
Justice Thomas spoke at The Heritage Foundation recently for the annual Joseph Story Distinguished Lecture, where he was introduced by President Ronald Reagan’s former Attorney General Edwin Meese. That lecture showcased not only the intellectual talents that are obvious in his lucid, detailed, and easily-understood opinions, but also his common sense, good humor, and humility. All could admire his staunch unwillingness to allow the progressive politics of Washington and the media world deter him from doing what he thinks is right.
Many of Justice Thomas’s former law clerks, as well as other lawyers and well-respected legal analysts, have assailed Toobin for his latest attack on Thomas. As Damon Root correctly characterized it at Reason.com, it is one of “the dumbest” attacks yet on Thomas by someone who “has a bad habit of disregarding the truth when it comes to writing about” the justice. As just one example, in 2014 Toobin said that Thomas was an embarrassment because Toobin falsely claimed the justice was supposedly often half-asleep during oral arguments before the Court. I attend oral arguments all the time and that claim by Toobin is a figment of his imagination.
But more importantly, anyone with an actual knowledge of the Court, its decisions, and what goes on inside the Supreme Court building knows that Toobin’s claim that Thomas is just an unimportant, minor player is manifestly wrong. As Thomas’s former law clerk, Jennifer Bandy pointed out, that is just “nonsense.”
Jan Crawford Greenburg explained in great detail in her 2007 book, “Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story for Control of the United States Supreme Court,” that Justice Thomas “has been a significant factor in shaping the direction and decisions of the court” since his very first week as a new and very junior justice. Unlike Toobin’s unsupported ruminations, Greenburg based her conclusions on actual documentary evidence of what goes on inside the Supreme Court — the personal papers of Justice Harry Blackmun.
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“The Constitution is the ultimate stare decisis.” Clarence Thomas https://t.co/B0OkwFNMGv
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) November 2, 2016
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