Justice Clarence Thomas

Justice Clarence Thomas was born in June 1948 and grew up in Georgia. He graduated at Yale Law School and served as the Assistant Attorney General in Missouri, practicing law in the private sector. In 1981 he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education one year later, Justice Thomas was appointed Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by President Ronald Reagan. By 1991 Justice Thomas was nominated by Bush to fill Thurgood Marshall’s seat on the United States Supreme Court.

For the past twenty years Justice Thomas has been serving on the U.S. Supreme Court. He is seen as one of the most conservative members of the court and is often described as an originalist. His judicial philosophy places primary emphasis on the original intent of the Constitutions Founders. His view of the First Amendment is generally that it is very important and should continually be upheld. In a number of cases including religious speech, political leafleting, campaign contributions, pornography and commercial speech Justice Thomas has voted in favor of the First Amendment claims. However, that is not to say that he will always agree with free speech claimants. In a number of cases involving student and prisoner speech Justice Thomas ruled that the speech should be limited.

Although Justice Thomas has written more dissenting opinions, he has also written some majority opinions including: ACLU v. Ashcroft, which decided that “COPA’s reliance on community standards to identify material that is harmful to minors’ does not by itself render the statute substantially overboard for purposed of the First Amendment”. United States v. Scheffer, which ruled that according to Military Rule of Evidence 70...

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...in the process-orientated tools and doctrinal rules that protect against the gathering of judicial power. To some, he seems to ignore the promises he made to the Senate while to others he is simply trying to fulfill his duty to the best of his abilities.

Whether you agree or disagree with Chief Justice Roberts’s jurisprudence, the fact that he is unique is undeniable. Not only does he hold the highest position in the legal world but he also has a number of non-judicial duties as well, such as leading the Judicial Conference of the United States, Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution and most importantly administering the oat of office of at Presidential inaugurations. The presidential inauguration of 2009 marked Chief Justices first inauguration of a president. This was the first time a president was sworn in by a Chief Justice whose confirmation he opposed.