Thomas Rejects Rumors He Is Leaving the Court

Not a Lot of Stress

Thomas Rejects Rumors He Is Leaving the Court

WASHINGTON--In rare public remarks, Justice Clarence Thomas dismissed what he called “this rumor that I was retiring.”

“I have no idea where this stuff comes from,” he said.

Justice Thomas, in a relaxed and reflective mood, was interviewed by David Rubenstein, a financier and philanthropist, in the Supreme Court’s courtroom as part of a series of lectures sponsored by the Supreme Court Historical Society.

“I really don’t have a lot of stress,” Justice Thomas said cheerfully. “I cause stress.”

Justice Thomas, 70, joined the court in 1991 and is now its longest-serving current member. Political scientists say he is the most conservative justice in the Supreme Court’s modern history.

He often writes concurring and dissenting opinions that are joined by no other justice. So far this term, he has called for the court to reconsider New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark libel ruling, and argued that the fight for abortion rights shares roots with the eugenics movement.

Justice Thomas expressed dissatisfaction with press coverage of the Supreme Court and said he wished the public could see more of the court’s work for itself. But he did not endorse television coverage of the court’s arguments.

“When a camera is introduced, it changes the nature of the proceeding,” he said. “I don’t see how the camera will enhance how we do our jobs.”

He did not address directly his practice of not asking questions at oral arguments. Asked whether his colleagues should ask more questions, he said, “Oh God, no, don’t say that.”

He said he wished his fellow justices would give lawyers a chance to talk rather than peppering them with questions.

Justice Thomas said he tries to hire law clerks from modest backgrounds, but insists on “a lot of horsepower.” One of his current clerks, he said, had never received a grade other than an A.

“Some of us,” he said, “have experienced the whole alphabet.”

Justice Thomas discussed his goal as a young man of becoming a Roman Catholic priest, an aim he said he has never entirely abandoned. “That was the only thing I ever really wanted to be,” he said.

He dropped out of seminary, he said, because of a disagreement with the church’s relationship to the civil rights movement. “I got angry with the Catholic church over the issue of race,” he said. “I thought that the church should be the leader of the moral crusade against segregation and discrimination.”

Justice Thomas said he was “ideologically quite a bit to the left” in college and chose Yale Law School because he found Harvard Law School “way too conservative.”

“I know that sounds funny now,” he said.

He overlapped with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. at Yale, but the two men did not interact. Justice Alito later explained why. ..To read the rest of this article, subscribe to the blackchronicle newspaper