Free Republic

I owe an apology. On the eve of Independence Day, I have a renewed sense of what this country stands for, and how I personally could help achieve it. The promise of equality and freedom is one that all of us have to work for, at all times. I know this as a survivor of the Japanese American internment, which each day drives me only to strive harder to help fulfill that promise for future generations. I recently was asked by a reporter about Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissent in the marriage equality cases, in which he wrote words that really...

I owe an apology. On the eve of this Independence Day, I have a renewed sense of what this country stands for, and how I personally could help achieve it. The promise of equality and freedom is one that all of us have to work for, at all times. I know this as a survivor of the Japanese American internment, which each day drives me only to strive harder to help fulfill that promise for future generations. I recently was asked by a reporter about Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissent in the marriage equality cases, in which he wrote words that...

Oh. Well, my mistake then. Yesterday I thought he was saying something racist.What did this guy think his critics were accusing him of, if this is his “clarification”? A few fans have written wondering whether I intended to utter a racist remark by referring to Justice Thomas as a “clown in blackface.”“Blackface” is a lesser known theatrical term for a white actor who blackens his face to play a black buffoon. In traditional theater lingo, and in my view and intent, that is not racist. It is instead part of a racist history in this country.I feel Justice Thomas...

Via the Free Beacon, I think it was Dan McLaughlin of Red State who tweeted after last week’s SSM decision was released, “Now the contest begins to see who’ll be the angriest winner.” His point was that, for a movement that’s been unstoppable culturally over the past 10 years, there’s a curiously strong impulse towards nastiness in some lefties’ reaction to each new victory. With this remark from George Takei, I think it’s safe to say the contest is now over. Takei’s overreacting to a point Thomas made in response to Kennedy’s idea that state recognition of gay marriage is...

George Takei unleashed a racist rant against Clarence Thomas, sneering that the Supreme Court justice is a "clown in blackface." The Star Trek actor on Monday fumed, "[Thomas] is a clown in blackface sitting on the Supreme Court. He gets me that angry. He doesn't belong there." Talking to a local Fox affiliate in Phoenix, Takei snarled that the second African American on the Supreme Court is unqualified: "This man does not belong on the Supreme Court. He is an embarrassment. He is a disgrace to America."

For Broadway's Audra McDonald And Others, Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Is A 'No-Brainer' By DAVID NG AND DEBORAH VANKIN Prominent members of the performing and visual arts professions have voiced their approval of Friday's ruling by the Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage around the country. Their reactions are perhaps not surprising for a community, including Broadway, that has long supported same-sex marriage and that counts many gay individuals both behind and in front of the curtain. Many states had already decided to legalize same-sex marriage, but Friday's decision means that same-sex couples have the right to marry in all 50 states....

The lone African-American justice on the Supreme Court dissented from the landmark ruling declaring gay marriage legal nationwide, addressing, in part, the majority opinion's view that gay marriage would bestow dignity upon gay couples. In a 5-4 decision, the highest court in the land ruled Friday morning that state-level gay marriage bans violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the four dissenters, wrote in his dissent that the government cannot bestow "dignity" to gay marriages, despite the ruling. "Slaves did not lose their dignity (any more than they lost their humanity) because the government...

Justice Clarence Thomas on Friday wrote a fiery dissent in response to the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry.

Distancing themselves from the majority on the Supreme Court, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas filed a dissenting opinion to Wednesday's Defense Against Marriage Act ruling, stating that “same-sex marriage presents a highly emotional and important question of public policy – but not a difficult question of constitutional law." "The Constitution does not guarantee the right to enter into a same-sex marriage,” the justices wrote. The landmark case was filed by Edith Windsor of New York, who was forced to pay taxes on an inheritance when Thea Spyer, the woman she married in Ontario, Canada, died in 2009. Windsor was...

The Supreme Court saved a law Thursday aimed at preventing housing discrimination, and Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a scathing dissent calling out his liberal colleagues for their "audacity." In a 5-4 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court's majority found that the Fair Housing Act (FHA) prevents housing practices that unfairly impact minorities even if those practices are not intentionally discriminatory. Many cases brought under the FHA involve so-called disparate-impact claims, so a ruling against fair-housing advocates would have seriously hobbled the law. Thomas — the court's only African-American justice — wrote a separate dissent questioning the notion that the government...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left intact a ruling that struck down anArizona law that denied bail to illegal immigrants charged with certain felonies. The justices rejected an appeal filed by Maricopa County and its controversial sheriff, Joe Arpaio. Three of the court's conservative justices, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, said they would have heard the case. Four of the nine justices must agree to hear a case for the court to take it up. The court's action means the October 2014 ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the 2006 law is unconstitutional, is the final word in the...

Barron’s Educational Series, the maker of popular Advanced Placement study guides, has apologized for linking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to fascism and comparing him to the KKK. The Daily Caller reported Monday about the extreme comparison, found on page 168 of the 7th edition of Barron’s AP European History study guide. “It has been brought to our attention that Barron’s AP European History, 7th Edition by Seth Roberts and James Eder contains erroneous information that casts aspersions on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas,” reads a statement released by the company on Tuesday. “In an attempt to draw a comparison...

The latest version of a top-selling study guide for the Advanced Placement European History exam explains the French Revolution with a chart which identifies Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a fascist and pairs him with the Ku Klux Klan.“Barron’s AP European History” (7th edition) makes the claim, intended for consumption by American high school students, on page 168. The chart attempts to compare modern American political affiliations with the various factions involved in the French Revolution. The chart moves politically from left to right.The far right of the chart is labeled “fascist.” The authors demonstrate modern-day “fascists” by pairing “Clarence...

In a dissenting opinion joined by Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Clarence Thomas excoriated his fellow justices for refusing to temporarily stop enforcement of a federal district judge's ruling that overturned the marriage laws of the state of Alabama and ordered Alabama to recognize as legal "marriages" unions between two people of the same sex. On Jan. 23, U.S. District Judge Callie Granade ruled that Alabama laws limiting marriage to the union of one man and one woman violated the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection of the law. Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange petitioned the Supreme Court to prevent the...

The Supreme Court’s decision on Monday not to delay same-sex marriage in Alabama offered the strongest signal yet that gay rights advocates are likely to prevail in coming months in their decades-long quest to establish a nationwide constitutional right to same-sex marriage.

In an interesting recent article, and a post at Prawfsblawg, legal scholar Mark Kende argues that Justice Clarence Thomas approves of Korematsu v. United States, the notorious 1944 Supreme Court decision that upheld the internment of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II. Here is the article abstract: The U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous decision in Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214 (1944) has been in the news recently as some scholars and advocates, such as Peter Irons, have asked the Court to formally repudiate the decision. This essay breaks new ground by demonstrating that Justice Clarence Thomas’s jurisprudence on...

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia share a famous fondness for the opera, but they don't often find themselves on the same side of divided Supreme Court decisions. So it was noteworthy on Tuesday when, along with conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, Ginsburg and Scalia teamed up to file a strongly-worded dissent in the court's decision to reject an appeal in a crack-cocaine sentencing case. The move to submit a signed dissent, noted first by Reason.com, was rare enough. The Supreme Court denies a vast majority of the petitions it receives, usually without any explanation or dissenting opinions. That's true...

Joshua Matz didn’t bother waiting to write about the Supreme Court until he went to work there. He teamed with a renowned Harvard law professor to finish a book about the court before he started his year as a law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy. Unlike Matz, Christopher Michel is not listed as an author of the book he worked on years before his clerkship with Chief Justice John Roberts. But former President George W. Bush offered warm praise for onetime presidential speechwriter Michel as his collaborator on his memoir, "Decision Points." Bush said in the book’s acknowledgements that Michel’s...

This video is supposed to be satire about the liberal reaction to the Hobby Lobby decision but it sounds almost like an accurate depiction.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is so angry over the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in the Hobby Lobby contraception case last week that he apparently forgot Justice Clarence Thomas is black. The Nevada Democrat lamented the court’s ruling which allows Hobby Lobby and other for-profit companies with religious objections to certain forms of contraception to avoid providing them to employees in health insurance plans mandated under Obamacare. Hobby Lobby approves of 16 out of 20 forms of contraception that have been approved by the FDA. “People are going to have to walk down here and vote, and if they vote...