Justice Clarence Thomas On Law Clerk Hiring, Interracial Marriage, And More

Justice Thomas, quiet on the bench, opens up in a media interview -- with his wife!

Justice Clarence Thomas (screencap via Daily Caller News Foundation)

Last year, a rumor about Justice Clarence Thomas supposedly considering retirement surfaced — and quickly got shot down by his wife, Virginia Lamp Thomas. And if anyone would know about Justice Thomas’s plans, it would be Mrs. Thomas. They’re famously devoted to each other, even more so than a typical married couple. In his public appearances, Justice Thomas always includes a shout-out to Ginni Thomas, whom he lovingly refers to as “his bride.”

In light of their mutual devotion, it should come as no surprise that Justice Thomas agreed to be interviewed by Mrs. Thomas for an installment of her Daily Caller News Foundation interview series with leaders from different fields. At the start of the segment, Ginni Thomas graciously thanks her husband for doing the interview — but what choice did he really have? They’ve been married for more than 30 years (and presumably Justice Thomas would like to keep it that way).

One might expect a SCOTUS justice being interviewed by his wife to be a little awkward, and there are a few odd moments (such as a discussion about Justice Thomas’s reading recommendations for Mrs. Thomas). But on the whole, the interview is quite charming and funny, offering a nice window into the life, career, and worldview of the 69-year-old jurist.

Critics of his conservative jurisprudence like to caricature Justice Thomas as an uncaring curmudgeon, but those who know him — or who have even heard him speak off the bench (because he doesn’t say much while on it) — understand that he’s a kind, generous, and warmhearted person. At One First Street, for example, he’s the justice who knows everyone’s name, from the Chief Justice to the chief janitor. These qualities come through in his Daily Caller interview.

The interview begins with Mrs. Thomas asking Justice Thomas about the lessons he has learned over the years. He of course cites the wisdom of his grandfather, who raised him –as recounted in his compelling memoir, My Grandfather’s Son (affiliate link) — with a special emphasis on the importance of humility (5:10).

“It focuses you,” Justice Thomas said of humility. “It tells you not to focus on whether you’re praised or criticized, to not worry about whether someone gets more than you get, to not worry about whether someone is going to say something hateful about you… And don’t worry about whether they say good things about you either. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you do what you are called to do.”

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For Justice Thomas, that calling comes through his religious faith. As a young man, he thought he was called to be a Catholic priest and even spent some time in the seminary. But then, like many young people in the 1960s, he went through a period of crisis and questioning, which caused him to leave the church in 1968.

In the 1990s, about 25 years later, he returned to the church. Why? “Life,” he said. “Life happens.” His faith gave him, and continues to give him, the strength to deal with the difficulties and challenges of life.

Like many religious individuals, Justice Thomas is acutely aware of his blessings. He lists some of them in the interview (9:43), including being born in the United States; his religious faith; his grandparents, who raised him; the priests and nuns of his Catholic school, who taught him; his son Jamal; and, of course, his wife Ginni, whom he married in 1987.

On that subject, Ginni Thomas asked her husband for his thoughts on interracial marriage (19:25). Not surprisingly, he’s in favor of it — but he has had to endure criticism over the years for being in an interracial marriage himself. As he says to Mrs. Thomas in the interview, “If I were more progressive or liberal, [our marriage] would be considered progressive… but if you are not [progressive or liberal], then you are ‘selling out.'”

This led Mrs. Thomas to ask her husband about all the criticism he has received over the years, for matters both personal and professional, which she describes as “ritual defamation” by a liberal cultural elite. He says it doesn’t bother him, and he just brushes it off: “When you overreact to what other people say about you, you are giving them control over who you are.”

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On a happier note, Ginni Thomas asks Justice Thomas about the best part of his job as a Supreme Court justice. Some justices might cite the power, the prestige, or the heady intellectualism of it all, but not CT. Proving that he’s truly a “people person,” he tells his wife, “The best part of my job is hanging out with my law clerks. They’re energetic, they’re fun, they’re smart, they’re hardworking, and they’re dedicated.” He has had more than 100 over the years, and they are “just a delight.”

Interested in clerking for Justice Thomas? As is the case for SCOTUS clerkships generally, you need a stellar GPA. But as we’ve mentioned before in these pages, Justice Thomas isn’t obsessed with where you went to law school. He hires from a wider range of schools than his colleagues — some 23 different law schools since 2005.

As he reveals in the interview, he focuses on character, intellectual honesty, and rising from modest circumstances. To be sure, he hires a fair amount of graduates from elite backgrounds, the Harvards and Yales of the world. But he also likes candidates “from the state schools — the Ivies are fine, but I like kids from the non-Ivy schools too.”

As we learned last year from Mrs. Thomas, Justice Thomas isn’t leaving SCOTUS anytime soon. So it’s worth getting to know him better — which you can do by tuning into his Daily Caller interview below.

Exclusive: Justice Thomas Opens Up On Life, Faith And His Interracial Marriage [VIDEO] [Daily Caller News Foundation]

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DBL square headshotDavid Lat is editor at large and founding editor of Above the Law, as well as the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.