{"id":52,"date":"2026-05-24T21:08:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T21:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=52"},"modified":"2026-05-24T21:08:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T21:08:46","slug":"justice-clarence-thomas-reflects-on-shared-values-and-his-deeper-friendships-on-a-past-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=52","title":{"rendered":"Justice Clarence Thomas reflects on shared values and his \u201cdeeper\u201d friendships on a past court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Justice Clarence Thomas on Thursday afternoon spoke on the issue of shared national values. In an appearance at a conference outside Miami for judges and lawyers from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which includes Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, Thomas described growing up in Georgia during segregation and said that \u201cwe shared a country, no matter how badly we were treated, with our fellow citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Court denies Virginia\u2019s request to reinstate congressional map that would benefit Democrats<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas was interviewed for over an hour by Kasdin Mitchell, a former clerk who was recently nominated to serve as a federal judge in Texas. Mitchell asked Thomas to discuss remarks that he had made last month at the University of Texas to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n

Thomas emphasized that the ideals outlined in the Declaration of Independence provide common ground for everyone in the United States. \u201cWe have different religions, we live in different places,\u201d he said, but what do we have in common? \u201cWe can say this is something that we all treasure and we all agree on.\u201d Even under segregation, he continued, we had that: as a child, he said, we \u201craised the flag everyday\u201d and \u201csaid the Pledge of Allegiance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to a question from Mitchell about what it means for rights to be self-evident, Thomas suggested that \u201cwe\u2019ve disenfranchised most people\u201d with discussions of legal theories like textualism and originalism \u2013 the principles that laws should be interpreted based only on the plain meaning of the text, and that the Constitution should be interpreted according to how it would have been understood when it was enacted. \u201cMost people don\u2019t understand those,\u201d Thomas said. Instead, he explained, \u201cwe were taught from the cradle that we were equal in God\u2019s eyes. \u2026 We could own property.\u201d \u201cOthers may intrude upon those rights \u2026 but it was not theirs to take away.\u201d He concluded, \u201cEven people who are unlettered when I grew up took it as a given that in God\u2019s eyes we were equal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting that he had only planned to live in Washington, D.C., for two years but had stayed on for more than four decades, Thomas suggested that in Washington and other places many people fall short of the ideals outlined in the Declaration of Independence. These people, he said, \u201cmake promises and platitudes,\u201d \u201cbut when it\u2019s time to actually have courage … they fail or they find a reason or an excuse\u201d not to act. He compared them (unfavorably) with the signers of the Declaration of Independence \u2013 who, he said, \u201cput their names down\u201d and \u201csealed their fate by signing\u201d the document, because they faced the possibility that they could be hung for treason.<\/p>\n

Mitchell noted that last week Thomas became the second-longest serving justice (and in two years could become the longest-serving justice). Thomas responded wryly, \u201cThanks for letting me know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he has in previous public appearances, Thomas expressed nostalgia for earlier iterations of the Supreme Court, telling Mitchell that \u201cit\u2019s a different court now\u201d and he was \u201creally grateful I had an opportunity to be on the court that I joined.\u201d When he joined the Supreme Court in 1991, he said, the court included several members of the \u201cgreatest generation\u201d \u2013 the cohort born during the first quarter of the 20th century. \u201cMost of them had been in the military\u201d and \u201clived through the depression. They thought the institution\u201d of the Supreme Court and \u201cthe Constitution were much bigger than they were,\u201d Thomas stressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Justices validate authority of federal courts to confirm arbitration awards \u2013 at least in cases already in federal court<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas indicated that during that era, \u201cthe friendships were much, much deeper than\u201d they are now, adding that \u201cI came of age on that court.\u201d He had just turned 43 when he was confirmed, while some of his colleagues at the time \u201chad children older than I was and yet they treated me very fairly.\u201d<\/p>\n

By contrast, he continued, he had known \u201cthe last four members of the current court\u201d \u2013 Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson \u2013 when they served as law clerks at the court, while he was a sitting justice. \u201cThe relationships are different,\u201d Thomas said, \u201ceven though they are not negative in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas addressed his increased participation in oral arguments after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted the court to switch at first to telephone arguments, in which each justice took turns asking questions. When the justices returned to the courtroom in September 2022, they reinstated the \u201cfree for all\u201d questioning that they had used before the pandemic, but they now follow it up with a \u201cround robin\u201d round of questions in which each justice has a chance to ask questions without interruption from the other justices. Before the pandemic, Thomas rarely asked questions \u2013 even though, as Mitchell told the audience, his clerks were instructed to provide possible questions with each memorandum that they prepared before oral arguments.<\/p>\n

Thomas said that the \u201cround robin\u201d questioning during the pandemic \u201cbrought an order to the process.\u201d Before the pandemic, he believed that the myriad interruptions were \u201crude and I said so.\u201d He expressed satisfaction with the current set-up for oral arguments, which can often go well over the hour normally allotted. He said that \u201cthe current approach may run on a bit long, but you cannot say you have not had a chance to say your piece. \u2026 I can sit there all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas also discussed his hiring of law clerks and his efforts to hire clerks from a variety of law schools outside of the Ivy League. He said proudly that he had had law clerks \u201cfrom each of the flagship law schools in the\u201d 11th Circuit \u2013 the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, and the University of Alabama. \u201cI think there\u2019s smart kids a lot of places,\u201d he said, adding that he had \u201ca young woman coming\u201d to start as a law clerk \u201cwho started in community college\u201d because of financial and family circumstances. \u201cI like kids from regular backgrounds,\u201d he said, with \u201cparents who worry about the mortgage and fixing the transmission on the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Strange judicial bedfellows<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Justice Clarence Thomas on Thursday afternoon spoke on the issue of shared national values. In an appearance at a conference outside Miami for judges and lawyers from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which includes Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, Thomas described growing up in Georgia during segregation and said that \u201cwe shared […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court-news"],"yoast_head":"\nJustice Clarence Thomas reflects on shared values and his \u201cdeeper\u201d friendships on a past court - American Service Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanservicereview.com\/?p=52\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Justice Clarence Thomas reflects on shared values and his \u201cdeeper\u201d friendships on a past court - American Service Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Justice Clarence Thomas on Thursday afternoon spoke on the issue of shared national values. 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