Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomasis an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Thomas succeeded Thurgood Marshall and is the second African American to serve on the court...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSupreme Court Justice
Date of Birth23 June 1948
CityPin Point, GA
CountryUnited States of America
black blacks disagree leaders point prevailing special treatment view
I disagree with the prevailing point of view of some black leaders that special treatment for blacks is acceptable.
suddenly
My grandparents had died in 1983, and suddenly my brother is out jogging before Mass, and he dies.
almost given tv
I've probably given more speeches, been on TV more than any other member of the Court - or almost any other member of the Court.
cases critics job people respond statements
My job is to write opinions. I decide cases and write opinions. It is not to respond to idiocy and critics who make statements that are unfounded. That doesn't mean that people shouldn't have constructive criticisms, but it should be constructive.
catholic minority
I was Catholic. You talk about a minority within a minority within a minority: a black Catholic in Savannah, GA.
based box certain judgments people supposed
It's fascinating that people, there's so many people now who will make judgments based on what you look like. I'm black. So I'm supposed to think a certain way. I'm supposed to have certain opinions. I don't do that. You don't create a box and put people in and then make a lot of generalizations about them.
american-judge government legitimacy properly role
I think, though, if I had to look at the role of government and what it does in people's lives, I see the EEOC as having much more legitimacy than the others, if properly run.
difference hard life lived order respond work
There's a difference between someone who's 'harsh' and someone who is 'hard.' Life was hard. You lived in the South, as my grandparents did, and you had to survive. That is hard. In order to respond to that, he had to become a hard man, with very hard rules, very hard discipline for himself, very hard days, hard work, et cetera.
certainly change consider manner risk runs
It runs the risk of undermining the manner in which we consider the cases. Certainly it will change our proceedings. And I don't think for the better.
affirm appears hold name parole placed program structured time
We hold that the program , as it appears to have been structured at the time (Harper) was placed on it, differed from parole in name only, ... and affirm the (appeals court's) decision.
rights civil-rights civil-rights-act
We've talked more about civil rights after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than we talked about it before 1964.
doe might vests
The Constitution does not vest in Congress the authority to protect society from every bad act that might befall it....[I]f followed to its logical extreme, [this approach] would result in an unwarranted expansion of federal power.
school mean black
[T]he courts are so willing to assume that anything that is predominantly black must be inferior.... The mere fact that a school is black does not mean that it is the product of an unconstitutional violation.
race humanity denial
To define each of us by our race is nothing short of a denial of our humanity.