How Clarence Thomas Broke My Heart

As law professors go, I’m pretty sympathetic to Clarence Thomas’s constitutional jurisprudence. It’s not that I agree with him, which I almost never do. But I think he genuinely tries to apply originalism using historical methods. And when it comes to the law of race, where again I disagree with Thomas, I respect his effort to give voice to a distinctive form of conservative black nationalism that insists on colorblindness because it’s better for blacks.

What’s more, I respect what I’ve seen of Thomas personally. I’ve never forgotten seeing him greet by name the members of the maintenance staff at the Supreme Court who polish the miles of brass on the court’s many staircases. Once I asked him about it, and he said he sometimes felt he had more in common with them than with the other justices. I didn’t think it was a line then, and I don’t think so now.