Thursday, October 13, 2011

Making the conservative look centrist

Nina Totenberg of NPR had a retrospective on Clarence Thomas on his 20th anniversary of being seated on the Supreme Court. Totenberg says Thomas is the most conservative Supreme and cited many cases where Thomas staked out a position that even Scalia, Alito, and Roberts couldn't agree to. The viewpoint that Thomas takes is quite consistent and quite conservative.

Having Thomas take such a position does two things. First, it gets the extreme view out there -- if a Supreme Justice says it, there must be something we should take a look at. Second, Thomas is so far out there he makes Scalia look centrist in comparison.

Totenberg notes that Thomas has surrounded himself exclusively with friends and clerks who think as conservatively as he does. He's even friends with Rush Limbaugh.

Newsweek has an article about Anita Hill, the one who came forward with accusations of sexual harassment during Thomas' confirmation hearings. Though she didn't derail his nomination (it was close) she did spark a national discussion on sexual harassment.

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