Justice Thomas at University of Florida

A pretty interesting conversation, via Michael Dorf.

Categories: Uncategorized    

    13 Comments

    1. Mike McDougal says:

      The key part of the speech is where he refers to TTT students. See here and here.

      As for the more substantive point, I wonder if there’s a good way of comparing the output quality of Thomas’s clerks versus those of the other justices.  (Quote)

    2. Mike McDougal says:

      Around 1:14:45 Thomas talks diversity in the judiciary. I’m not sure whether he’s saying society has become more accepting, allowing greater diversity or whether he’s tepidly supporting something like affirmative action. I suspect it’s more of the former, but it wasn’t quite the answer I expected to hear.  (Quote)

    3. Nels says:

      Mike, I interpreted that as him saying that when systems are fair, giving everyone an opportunity, there will naturally be diversity in the judiciary. He does seem to be agreeing that confidence in the judiciary is to some degree tied to people seeing judges up there that look like them.  (Quote)

    4. LTR says:

      I’ll never forget Scalia talking about Jeffrey Sutton: “He was one of my best clerks although he went to Ohio State”. It sounded like baseball coach saying: “He was a great defensive shortstop although he weighted 300 pounds and had a leg amputated due to diabetes”.

      Good to see Thomas resists the U.S. News rankings snobbery that seems to be dominant in law profession.  (Quote)

    5. Mark Field says:

      Brian Tamanaha has some comments here.  (Quote)

    6. Drib says:

      LTR: I’ll never forget Scalia talking about Jeffrey Sutton: “He was one of my best clerks although he went to Ohio State”. It sounded like baseball coach saying: “He was a great defensive shortstop although he weighted 300 pounds and had a leg amputated due to diabetes”. 

      Boooo.  (Quote)

    7. Pendulum says:

      I believe the actual quote was “for God’s sake, he went to Ohio State.”  (Quote)

    8. Andrew says:

      Nelson Lund will doubtless welcome Justice Thomas’s endorsement of circuit-riding, provided it can be done by RV rather than horseback. Pity the horse! My own size has benefitted from doing all my own cooking, and being a lousy cook.  (Quote)

    9. pedro says:

      Go Gators!  (Quote)

    10. JohnF says:

      One has to be struck by his decency, intelligence and caring. A great man.  (Quote)

    11. Andrew says:

      I second JohnF.  (Quote)

    12. John Herbison says:

      I did not view the entire video, but when Justice Thomas spoke of ascertaining what the drafters of a constitutional provision meant, I wondered whether he regards Bolling v. Sharpe as having been wrongly decided. I seriously doubt that the eighteenth century drafters of the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause would have had any problem with de jure segregation in the District of Columbia.  (Quote)

    Leave a Reply