Clarence Thomas -- Book Review by Jeffrey Toobin

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/11/12/071112crbo_books_toobin




And that’s also why, in 1991, after Thomas had been a judge for just sixteen months, Bush named him to replace Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court. At a press conference in Kennebunkport, when the President introduced Thomas to the nation, Bush said that the young judge was “the best qualified” nominee for the Court—a self-evidently preposterous statement. Indeed, in his book Thomas says, “Even I had my doubts about so extravagant a claim,” so he took it upon himself to ask C. Boyden Gray, Bush’s White House counsel, if he had been picked because he was black. According to Thomas, “Boyden replied that in fact my race had actually worked against me.” Gray said that Bush had originally planned to have Thomas replace Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., but Brennan had quit earlier than expected, in 1990, and Thomas was not yet regarded as ready for the promotion. As Thomas recalls the conversation with Gray, he said that the Bush Administration wanted “to avoid appointing me to what was widely perceived as the court’s ‘black’ seat.” But, of course, that is precisely what Bush did, and it is inconceivable that a young white lawyer who headed a modest federal agency would have been similarly rushed onto the Supreme Court. In the light of this conversation with Gray, though, Thomas declares that his race worked against him as a potential judicial appointee. It is hard to tell whether this is self-delusion or dishonesty.