Washington, D.C.— Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the senior member and former Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, paid tribute to Justice Clarence Thomas today to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Reflecting on their friendship, Hatch said, “I have known Clarence for 35 years, and chaired or served on the committees that oversaw each of his appointments. His impact on our nation comes from his own strength of character fueling his deep conviction about the principles of liberty.”
[YOUTUBE LINK TO SPEECH]
Select Quotes from the Speech
"Justice Thomas is the kind of judge that our liberty requires, and defending liberty is what he is doing for America and for each one of us. We have all passed by the National Archives building, which sits on Constitution Avenue just blocks from here. One of the statues in front bears the inscription eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Justice Thomas is paying that price of vigilance.”
On Justice Thomas and the Principles of Liberty
“His strength of character makes it possible for Justice Thomas to advance his deep conviction about the principles of liberty.”
“Justice Thomas draws a direct connection between equality and God-given unalienable rights, limited government, and liberty itself. This means that each branch of government, including the judiciary, should be active but only within its proper bounds. A judiciary consistent with liberty will be active in properly interpreting and applying the Constitution and will be restrained in declining to exercise power to manipulate or change the law.”
“The principles of liberty established by America’s founders are the same principles to which Clarence Thomas is deeply committed. But it is when those principles are fueled by personal character, integrity, and brilliance that they become a powerful force that defines a nation and helps chart its future.”
On Justice Thomas’s Judicial Philosophy
“In 1990, after being appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Clarence had lunch with a friend and reflected on his new judicial role. Every time I put on the robe, he said, I have to remember that I am only a judge. The only reason that sounds unusual today is that we live in an era of run-amok judges. That sounds unusual today, but then we live in an age of run-amok judges engaging in what the late Justice Antonin Scalia called power-judging.”
“In 2008, two legal scholars wrote about Justice Thomas in the Wall Street Journal. They quoted him describing his basic yet profound judicial philosophy this way. It’s not my constitution to play around with, he said. “I just think that we should interpret the Constitution as it’s drafted, not as we would have drafted it.” A properly active judiciary will interpret the Constitution as it is already drafted, and a properly restrained judiciary will refuse to interpret the Constitution the way judges would have drafted it.”
On Justice Thomas’s confirmation and what it represented
“This is the kind of judge that we knew Clarence Thomas would be: a judge who knows both the purpose and the limits of the power the Constitution gives him. This is also the reason that many fought so hard against his appointment and continue to criticize his service. The debate over Justice Thomas’ Supreme Court nomination was a debate over what kind of judge should be appointed in America. His opponents and critics want judges who will interpret the Constitution as the judges would have drafted it. In other words, they want a judiciary that is inconsistent with liberty, a judiciary that will control the law rather than be controlled by it. They are concerned more about power than about liberty.”
The full speech, as prepared for delivery.
Mr. President, I rise today to celebrate an event that both represents and helps preserve what is best about this great country. Twenty-five years ago next month, the Senate confirmed, and President George H.W. Bush appointed, Clarence Thomas to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
To paraphrase President John F. Kennedy, I would like to note both what this country has done for Justice Thomas and what Justice Thomas is doing for this country.
President Bush made the announcement of then-Judge Thomas’ Supreme Court nomination on July 1, 1991, at the Bush home in Maine. In his brief remarks, Judge Thomas said that “only in America could this have been possible.” He was right. It would be difficult to find a more powerful story about how far someone can go in this country.
Clarence Thomas was born on June 23, 1948, in a small wood frame house in the rural town of Pinpoint, Georgia. Six people lived in that house, which had no indoor plumbing. Life in the world of Clarence’s youth was fully segregated. In 1955, the year after the Supreme Court ruled segregated education unconstitutional, he and his brother moved to live with their maternal grandparents, Myers and Christine Anderson.
Myers Anderson lacked the outward material signs of success that many prize so highly today. He grew up poor, without a father, and had only a third grade education. Yet it was what he had, rather than what he lacked, that would make him the most profound influence on his grandson Clarence. Mr. Anderson’s strength of character, his principles and values, and his example shaped the man whose memoir would later be titled My Grandfather’s Son.
Clarence’s grandparents were honest, hardworking, and deeply religious people. They taught decency and respect for others, insisting that Clarence never refuse to do an errand for a neighbor. Mr. Anderson wanted his grandson to be self-sufficient, able to stand on his own two feet even in a hostile world where the odds seemed heavily stacked against him.
The other powerful influence for young Clarence were the nuns who taught him at St. Benedict’s Grammar School. There, and at St. Benedict’s Catholic Church, Clarence learned that all people are inherently equal, no matter what the law or society might say at a particular time.
Clarence graduated from high school in 1967, the only black student in his class, and was the first person in his family to attend college. After graduating from Yale Law School, Clarence went to work for Missouri Attorney General John Danforth, arguing his first case before the Missouri Supreme Court just three days after being sworn in as a member of the Missouri bar. He came to Washington in 1979 to join then-Senator Danforth as a legislative assistant.
Clarence Thomas was confirmed by the Senate for the first of five times in 1981 as Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights. He would become the longest-serving Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1982, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1990, and a Supreme Court Justice in 1991, at the age of 43. America gave him opportunities that do not exist anywhere else in the world.
Since this anniversary is about Justice Thomas’ service on the Supreme Court, let me turn from what America has done for him to what he is doing for America. I have known Clarence for 35 years, and chaired or served on the committees that oversaw each of his appointments. His impact on our nation comes from his own strength of character fueling his deep conviction about the principles of liberty.
I have already touched on some of the building blocks of Clarence’s character, including his grandfather’s example of standing firm on his beliefs. In one interview, Clarence said that his professional career is a vindication of the way he was raised. He described that upbringing this way in a 1986 article: “But my training by the nuns and my grandparents paid off. I decided then…that it was better to be respected than liked.”
At the time of Clarence’s Supreme Court nomination, reporters noted that he defied categorization and refuses to uncritically accept orthodoxy of any stripe. Even liberal columnists acknowledged the nominee’s intellectual independence. This strength of character has not changed and makes it possible for Justice Thomas to advance his deep conviction about the principles of liberty.
The first principle is the inherent equality of every human being. As the Declaration of Independence states, government exists to secure the unalienable rights of individuals. Justice Thomas has called the Constitution a logical extension of the Declaration’s principles.
The second principle of liberty that defines Justice Thomas’ service is the necessity of limits on government, including judges. In 1988, while chairman of the EEOC, he made an important presentation at the Federalist Society’s annual symposium. The related principles of equality and God-given unalienable rights, he said, are “the best defense of limited government, of the separation of powers, and of the judicial restraint that flows from the commitment to limited government.”
Justice Thomas has said many times that he resists a single label or category for his judicial philosophy, or his understanding of the power and role of judges in our system of government. In that 1988 speech, however, he said that liberty and limited government are the foundation for what he called “a judiciary active in defending the Constitution, but judicious in its restraint and moderation.” This judiciary, he explained, “is the only alternative to the willfulness of both run-amok majorities and run-amok judges.”
To put it simply, Justice Thomas draws a direct connection between equality and God-given unalienable rights, limited government, and liberty itself. This means that each branch of government, including the judiciary, should be active but only within its proper bounds. A judiciary consistent with liberty will be active in properly interpreting and applying the Constitution and will be restrained in declining to exercise power to manipulate or change the law.
In 1990, after being appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, Clarence had lunch with a friend and reflected on his new judicial role. Every time I put on the robe, he said, I have to remember that I am only a judge. The only reason that sounds unusual today is that we live in an era of run-amok judges. That sounds unusual today, but then we live in an age of run-amok judges engaging in what the late Justice Antonin Scalia called power-judging.
Justice Thomas’ statement would not, however, have sounded strange to America’s founders. Alexander Hamilton, after all, wrote that because the judiciary may exercise judgment, but may not exercise will, it is the weakest and least dangerous branch.
In 2008, two legal scholars wrote about Justice Thomas in the Wall Street Journal. They quoted him describing his basic yet profound judicial philosophy this way. It’s not my constitution to play around with, he said. “I just think that we should interpret the Constitution as it’s drafted, not as we would have drafted it.” A properly active judiciary will interpret the Constitution as it is already drafted, and a properly restrained judiciary will refuse to interpret the Constitution the way judges would have drafted it.
That is what judges are supposed to do in our system of government. They are supposed to interpret the Constitution – and statutes too, for that matter – as it was drafted. Judges must take the law as they find it and apply it impartially to decide cases. That is their job, their part of the system of government that supports liberty.
This is the kind of judge that we knew Clarence Thomas would be: a judge who knows both the purpose and the limits of the power the Constitution gives him. This is also the reason that many fought so hard against his appointment and continue to criticize his service. The debate over Justice Thomas’ Supreme Court nomination was a debate over what kind of judge should be appointed in America. His opponents and critics want judges who will interpret the Constitution as the judges would have drafted it. In other words, they want a judiciary that is inconsistent with liberty, a judiciary that will control the law rather than be controlled by it. They are concerned more about power than about liberty.
Thankfully, Justice Thomas is the kind of judge that our liberty requires, and defending liberty is what he is doing for America and for each one of us. We have all passed by the National Archives building, which sits on Constitution Avenue just blocks from here. One of the statues in front bears the inscription eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. Justice Thomas is paying that price of vigilance.
Mr. President, a judge’s clerks, in a unique and special way, become a family. Justice Thomas’ clerks have become partners at America’s best law firms and professors at her finest law schools, carrying with them the principles and lessons he taught about how to protect liberty. As I did five years ago when celebrating Justice Thomas’ 20th anniversary, I asked some of his former clerks to send letters about the Justice and I ask consent that they be included in the record following my remarks.
The principles of liberty established by America’s founders are the same principles to which Clarence Thomas is deeply committed. But it is when those principles are fueled by personal character, integrity, and brilliance that they become a powerful force that defines a nation and helps chart its future.
On July 1, 1991, when President Bush announced that he was nominating Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, Clarence said that his grandparents, his mother, and the nuns who taught him “were adamant that I grow up and make something of myself.” To my friend Clarence, I have to say that not only did you exceed all of those expectations, but your service, character, and example are helping to make something good out of the rest of us.
Also on a more personal note, the unexpected death of Justice Scalia has been a profound loss in many ways, including for his friend and colleague Clarence Thomas. On several different levels – personally, philosophically, even spiritually – they were close, fellow travelers if you will. Justice Scalia’s death is a great personal loss but also created a void that I am confident Justice Thomas is already filling in continuing to stand for the principles they shared.
A few months ago Justice Thomas was the commencement speaker at Hillsdale College in Michigan. He cautioned that today there is more emphasis on our rights and what we are owed than on our obligations and what we can give.
And he asked this question: “If we are not making deposits to replenish our liberties, then who is?” By his character and convictions, Clarence Thomas continues to make those deposits and maintain the vigilance necessary to replenish and protect our liberty. America gave him much and he is returning even more.