112 Former Law Clerks of Justice Thomas Write Open Letter to His Critics
Attack Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas all you like, he’s going to have his defenders.
And we’re not just talking conservative pundits, either: In a scathing letter aimed at the justice’s detractors, 112 of Thomas’ former law clerks took aim at the controversial ethics charges he faces, calling them “malicious, perpetuating the ugly assumption that the Justice cannot think for himself.”
The open letter, published Tuesday, includes signatories that are, according to Fox News, “current solicitors general, general counsels, partners at litigation firms and law professors.
“Three circuit court judges also signed the letter: David Stras on the 8th Circuit, Jim Ho of the 5th Circuit, and Allison Rushing, 4th Circuit,” the outlet added.
The open letter comes after a ProPublica hit-piece on Thomas earlier this month which detailed gifts from wealthy friends of the justice.
As Politico reported at the time, the report showed “a higher number of billionaire benefactors than was previously reported.”
It all sounds pretty damning for the longest-serving justice on the court — until you examine the facts, as 112 of Thomas’ former clerks did.
In the letter, the signatories said of Thomas that “his independence is unshakable.”
“As his law clerks, we offer this response. Different paths led us to our year with Justice Thomas, and we have followed different paths since. But along the way, we all saw with our own eyes the same thing: His integrity is unimpeachable,” the letter read.
The open letter began with a summary of Thomas’ background: “On the U.S. Supreme Court is a Justice descended from West African slaves and born to a young mother, not more than 20, in segregated Georgia. Home was Pin Point, among the Gullah-Geechee and oysters and marshlands. His father left. And a fire took all he had and the shack where he lived.”
“He was sent to Savannah along with his brother. They lived in their mother’s one-room tenement. Then, still just a child, taking all his belongings in a half-filled paper grocery bag, he went to live with his grandparents, Myers and Christine Anderson. It was the longest and most significant journey of his life. He and his brother flushed the indoor toilet every time they walked by. The kitchen refrigerator dazzled them.”
Thomas, they noted, was “set on becoming a priest.” Alas: “Then came 1968. King was assassinated. Then Kennedy. It transformed him. He left behind hopes of the priesthood. He found Black Power. He wrote about revolution. He protested.
“He went to law school. He became a father. He worked for legal aid. He saw forced busing and violence and insolence in South Boston. He devoted himself to doing better for his son.
“He took the road less traveled. He went to work for Republican Jack Danforth in the middle of Missouri. It was his only job offer. Years later, he went to Washington, D.C. He joined the Reagan administration. He pulled at every thread of his country’s founding and its history—a country that had simultaneously enslaved his ancestors while declaring “all men are created equal.” He became a judge. And ultimately, a Justice,” the letter continued.
And now, of course, the left wants to tear him down — just like they did in 1991 during his confirmation hearings, and just like they’ve done at every opportunity since.
As for “the stories [that] have questioned his integrity and his ethics for the friends he keeps”?
“They bury the lede. These friends are not parties before him as a Justice of the Court. And these stories are malicious, perpetuating the ugly assumption that the Justice cannot think for himself,” the letter explained.
“They are part of a larger attack on the Court and its legitimacy as an institution. The picture they paint of the Court and the man for whom we worked bears no resemblance to reality,” it continued.
And what is this “picture“?
“Earlier this year, Pro Publica published a report that GOP megadonor Harlan Crow paid for vacations for Justice Thomas, including travel on a private jet,” Fox News reported.
“Another reporter by the same outlet revealed that Thomas’ great-nephew, whom Thomas and his wife had taken into their care in 1997, had his tuition paid for by Crow at two private schools. The New York Times published a report that Thomas once accepted a Super Bowl ring from billionaire Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.”
Because, as we know, Jones won a 5-4 decision authored by Thomas in which the Cowboys were officially declared “America’s Team.” That, for the humor-challenged, was an obvious joke — the same way the accusations against Thomas are.
Clarence Thomas is a black conservative — and because of that, the left has waged a three-decade war against him. First, it was spurious sexual harassment claims. Now, it’s billionaires with no cases before the court buying influence he was in no position to peddle.
The actual man, his clerks said in the open letter, is much different than the figure liberals love to attack.
“He is a man of unwavering principle. He welcomes the lone dissent. He is also a man of great humor and warmth and generosity. Walk the halls, and you’ll hear his laugh. Call, and he answers,” the letter read.
“His grandfather’s sayings become our sayings. His chambers become our chambers – a place fueled by unstoppable curiosity and unreturned library books, all to get every case just right,” it continued.
“And yet, the stories most often told of Justice Thomas are not these. The Justice is ever the subject of political headlines taking aim at his character, his judicial philosophy, his marriage, even his race. They attempt to write over his actual story.”
They’ve been trying to do that for 32 years. It didn’t work in 1991. Conservatives must make sure it doesn’t work now.
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