Abandoned by his father at an early age, Clarence Thomas grew up in a tiny and impoverished community without paved roads or a sewer system. His mother worked as a maid and depended upon church charity to help raise her three children. When he was seven the family house burned to the ground. His mother sent her two sons to Savannah to live with her father, who taught them the importance of education and hard work and encouraged Thomas to become a priest. Thomas attended local black public schools, leaving after the second year of high school to attend St. John Vianney Minor Seminary, a Catholic boarding school for white students. Despite pervasive prejudice against him, he graduated in 1967 with a good academic record.
Thomas entered Immaculate Conception Seminary in Missouri, but left because of the racism he encountered. He enrolled at College of the Holy Cross, in Worcester, Massachusetts, at a time when the school was actively recruiting blacks. He joined in forming a Black Student Union, supported the Black Panthers, and graduated, ninth in his class, in 1971 with an honors degree in EnglishThomas went to Yale Law School, thanks in part to its Thurgood Marshall. His nomination was opposed by many Atkins v. Virginia (2002), Thomas dissented from the majority opinion that exempted individuals with mental retardation from the death penalty. The rationale of Thomas and the other dissenters was that mental retardation would be too easy to fake.
Gregarious, with an easy laugh, Thomas seldom takes an active role in oral arguments and almost always votes with Scalia. Like his colleague, he believes that the exact phrasing of the Constitution is the surest guide to its meaning, and he would severely limit the Court's right to review legislation. Unlike Scalia, however, he has little or no respect for judicial precedent. He decisions frequently disagree with those of the Court majority.
Why the sudden change
protests were today you fake militant
damn thought it was Tuesday. Must have read it wrong on the news.
