2. His opinion on Mitchell v. Helms

1. His childhood, education and work experiences/background

After thinking over one of his opinions, lets look at another part of Justice Thomas’s work: giving speeches. From time to time Clarence Thomas ends up giving speeches for the different reasons. One of these speeches was the one he gave at the annual meeting of the National Bar Association on July 29th, 1998. This association represents African American judges and attorneys. In this speech he talks about the death of Martin Luther King Jr., which was exactly thirty years ago, criticism in the Supreme Court, some of his opinions, discrimination in his childhood, and his decision not to become a priest, but to study law at Yale instead. I picked this speech for two reasons: two parts of this speech that I think are important, because they show what a great justice and man Clarence Thomas is. “Unlike the unfortunate practice or custom in Washington and in much of the country, the court is a model of civility. It’s a wonderful place. Though there have been many contentious issues to come before court during these initial years of my tenure, I have yet to hear the first unkind words exchanged among my colleagues. And quite frankly, I think that such civility is the sine qua non of conducting the affairs of the court and the business of the country.” (www.africanamericans.com). In my opinion this part of his speech is fascinating. Justice Thomas sees his work and the place he works at as such great things. He loves what he is doing and does it with his full heart. He appreciates all other justices and has high respect for them, as they have for him. I think it is very important that a justice likes his job and the persons he is working with. In my opinion his love for the job makes him a great justice and I believe that he always puts a lot of thoughts into everything he is doing it and he is doing it from his heart. The second part of this speech I find quite fascinating is the following: “Any effort, policy or program that has a prerequisite the acceptance of the notion that blacks are inferior is a non-starter wit me. I do not believe that kneeling is a position of strength. Nor do I believe that begging is an effective tactic. I am confident that the individual approach, not the group approach, is the better, more acceptable, more supportable and less dangerous one . . . “ (www.africanamericans.com). I really like this part and it shows Thomas’ opinion about the blacks. He does not want to be protected just because he is black. If a white person would not be protected, he does not want to be protected. Everybody is the same and should have the same rules. That is one of his thoughts and in my opinion this is a very supportable attitude. Seeing everybody as the same in front of the court is a character trait, which I think is very important and helpful in being a Supreme Court Associate Justice. I believe that this attitude makes Clarence Thomas a better justice, because he does not care if the person in front of him is black, white, Hispanic, or Mexican. A human is a human and has the same rules to follow and the same consequences if he does not to it, no matter what color, what race, or what gender this person is. That is what Ju

Some topics in this essay:
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