Justice Clarence Thomas’ controversial concurrence to overturn Roe v. Wade has sparked criticism of the consistency of the conservative justice, who mostly doesn’t give much when cases go to trial and whose political activist wife has raised ethics concerns. But some who know him personally defended his character, even though it was at odds with his ideology. In his opinion, the divisive justice for more than 30 years said the Supreme Court should “revisit” decisions that established access to birth control and progress in gay rights. This, combined with the controversy surrounding his wife Ginni’s involvement in the 2020 election rigging effort, was just the latest in a series of positions that have increased scrutiny of his position on the Supreme Court. In January, Thomas was the only member of the court to vote in favor of former President Donald Trump’s bid to block the Jan. 6 House Select Committee from obtaining documents related to the failed coup attempt. A petition calling for Thomas’ resignation, arguing that he is not an impartial judge, has garnered more than a million signatures. His conservative ideology has also led to calls for his removal from the court. Similarly, some students at George Washington University, where he is a lecturer, have also called for his removal from the school. A former employee of Thomas said the increasingly ugly perception of justice is at odds with who he is as a person. Stephen McAllister, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas from 2018 to 2021, was Thomas’ clerk from October 1991 to January 1992. “As a person, I think he’s absolutely wonderful, but he’s going to be judged on what he does as justice,” McAllister told Insider, referring to Thomas’ concurrence released when Roe came down in late June, arguing that access to births, intimate gay relationships and marriage equality should be “reconsidered”. McAllister, who clerked for both Thomas and Judge Byron White separately in the 1990s, said that while he “learned from him as a leader,” he doesn’t necessarily agree with Thomas’ political views. “I’m not saying I agree with everything he believes or does, but as a person, he’s very genuine, warm, really humble and honest, and he cares a lot about people really as individuals,” McAllister said.
Thomas’ previous controversies
Early in his career, Thomas faced accusations of sexual harassment from Anita Hill. Hill – who was his aide while he was assistant secretary of education for civil rights and chairman of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the 1980s – accused him of making unwanted sexual comments, sometimes “graphic about his sexual prowess” . He denies the charges. Additionally, his positions have not always aligned with some members of the black community, including Rosa Parks, who said Thomas’ presence on the field would be a step back from racial progress. In his concurring opinion released at the time of Roe’s overturning, Thomas wrote “we should review all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.” The repeal, coupled with Thomas’s concurrence, worried many Americans — politicians and others — that the country was rolling back the progress it has made on reproductive, LGBTQIA+ and civil rights issues. Thomas, whose wife is a white conservative activist, has not indicated that he is considering repealing the right to marry interracially. “I’m not going to necessarily defend where he understands things,” McAllister said, adding that Thomas has always had an original perspective on the Constitution. “He has an opinion about the Constitution, but he’s consistent,” he said. “I mean, it’s been that way since the beginning, so there are no surprises.” Since his appointment to the Court by President George H.W. Bush, Thomas has held relatively similar beliefs. McAllister argued that Thomas makes his decisions on the Court through an “originalist” lens — meaning he believes the Constitution should be read as written. “He believes the court has been on the wrong analytical path basically since the early 1870s,” McAllister told Insider. He pointed to Thomas’ focus on the “Privileges or Immunities Clause of the 14th Amendment,” which established equal protection under the law. Opinions aside, McAllister said his former boss wasn’t “very high and mighty” and knew custodians or cafeteria staff that other judges might have overlooked. “He’s a wonderful person and person and I think probably everyone who has worked with him would tell you that he’s an extremely kind, down-to-earth person,” he said. Similarly, a former aide to Thomas also defended the judge on July 7 in an op-ed in response to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, calling the justice “a man with a grievance.” “In any case, Clarence Thomas was one of 12 Black students in his class at Yale Law School. He grew up on a farm in the depths of Jim Crow. Is it easy to forget the humiliations and humiliations of childhood? Did Frederick forget Douglas his enslavement?” former aide Armstrong Williams wrote in an article for The Hill. “Maybe that’s the ultimate absolute fidelity to the Constitution,” he said of Thomas’ conservative positions. “I guess it’s absolute originalism. If you believe that this document is really the original intent, then if you’ve strayed from it, then the right path is to go back to it, even if you’ve strayed from it a long time ago. . “ The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. Thomas could not immediately be reached for comment.
