Thanks Tom for the link to Rush's long interview with Clarence Thomas. Not even the president has ever gotten that much air time from Rush.
This is vintage Rush:
I asked you if you thought that you were at the pinnacle of your profession as an Associate Justice on the court. You said you don't look at it that way at all. You have a much more humble approach to what it means to sit on the US Supreme Court. But others, who were threatened by your nomination and your confirmation, looked at you as the biggest threat to the existing civil rights coalition prescription for minority success in this country today because you did not follow their route. You did not go through the appropriate civil rights leaders to be anointed and granted permission to move on and do so in their image and in their ways, and America is now seeing you as they've never seen you. They're seeing you exactly as the civil rights coalition feared from the first day of your nomination that you would be seen: a genuine, humble human being who has become, in their fearful view, the way they look at you is, you are now the most powerful African-American man in the country, and you have shown that it can be done without them.
Bravo! Justice Thomas did it the old fashioned way. He worked hard, and long, and harder. He maintained a strong sense of self and decency and honor. He didn't cry about not having access to the best opportunities but made the most of the opportunities that were available to him, and impressed people in those settings through his character, judgment and work ethic. I don't remember hearing it quite that way from Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Obama's pastor.
Thomas delivers the perfect answer to the question, "What is the proper role of a judge?"
My role is to interpret the Constitution. It's to interpret a statute. It is not to impose my policy views or my personal views on your Constitution, our Constitution, or on your laws. It's not my private preserve to work out these theories, and I guard very, very diligently against doing that. I think a part of being able to stay within the confines of that limited role, a judge has to be humble about his own approach and what his capacities are. I had a little prayer that I used to say years ago when I was at EEOC: "Lord, grant me the wisdom to know what is right and the courage to do it." So I also think that, in addition to wisdom or humility, you need the courage to do what is right. If the answer is something that is difficult or that will lead to criticism, you still have to do it, if it's right. It's your oath. So that's, in a nutshell, my approach to the job. I took an oath to God, not an oath to be God. We're there to do our jobs as
judges. I'm a judge. I have a limited role, and I stick within that role.
Did the confirmation hearings scar him, leave him bitter?
I've suffered no wounds. People say, "Well, you had a tough confirmation." I have no wounds. I have my arms; I have my sight. Our wounded soldiers have given so much more in defense of liberty than I could ever hope to give. Yes, I love being out among them, the people who fought our wars, the people who protect us, the people who give us our electricity. It reaffirms the way I write the opinions so they can read them. One gentleman came up to me, and he said, "Thank you for writing your opinion," and I can't remember the case. I said, "Why are you reading it?" He said, "I'm not a lawyer, but you gave me access to our Constitution." That's why I write it that way, and it's for these people that I try to be humble in interpreting their Constitution.
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