Posted on 08/06/2004 1:58:01 PM PDT by HAL9000
WASHINGTON (AP) - Clarence Thomas has been interviewed by White House lawyers as a possible choice to be the next chief justice of the United States, says the author of a new biography.
Thomas says he isn't interested but could find it hard to turn down an opportunity to be the first black man to lead the Supreme Court, said biographer Ken Foskett.
"Judging Thomas," out this week from William Morrow, traces Thomas' life from rough beginnings in rural Georgia, through Yale Law School to his life today.
Thomas initially refused Foskett's request for interviews, but later spoke to the author both on and off the record.
Thomas likes NASCAR and football, plays a fierce game of basketball and during the court's summer recess tours the nation in a 40-foot mobile home decorated with orange flames, Foskett wrote.
Thomas is friendly and outgoing in person, though he almost never says a word during the court's oral arguments and is considered among the most private of the nine justices, Foskett said.
"I think people would be surprised to know that Thomas knows everyone in the building by first name," Foskett said.
Thomas has recovered from his bitter 1991 confirmation hearings, and is comfortable in his role on the court as a conservative iconoclast, Foskett said. Thomas is the youngest of the justices at 56 and could remain on the court for decades.
Whether he is elevated to chief justice "all depends on Bush being re-elected," Foskett said.
Thomas' promotion to the court's top job would also depend on the exit of his boss, 79-year-old Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.
Rehnquist is not expected to retire before the November presidential election, but might do so in a second Bush term. The White House has a short list of candidates for any Supreme Court vacancy, and has presumably interviewed several potential nominees to succeed Rehnquist.
Nominating Thomas would guarantee a rancorous Senate confirmation battle and a reprise of lurid allegations of sexual harassment involving former employee Anita Hill.
Those tawdry details still probably define Thomas for most people, and he knows his conservative views and opposition to affirmative action make him unpopular with the black civil rights establishment, Foskett said.
Thomas denies he is a curiosity.
"I do not understand this interest in me," he wrote to Foskett in 2002. "Perhaps some are confused because they have stereotypes of how blacks should be and I respectfully decline, as I did in my youth, to sacrifice who I am for who they think I should be."
Thomas also noted that he is writing his own life story, for which he has since collected a $1.5 million advance. The whopping book deal surprised Thomas, but he is having the last laugh, Foskett wrote.
"Without Hill's allegations a decade earlier and the thrashing from liberals ever since, he never would have commanded such an extraordinary sum for his life story," Foskett wrote.
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Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has already published an autobiography, although her best-selling memoir of a girlhood on a Western ranch did not bring such a huge advance.
O'Connor read from that book, "The Lazy B," and talked about her life on the court in an interview with television journalist Roger Mudd.
O'Connor told Mudd she did not expect to be picked as the first woman justice, even after an Oval Office interview with then-President Reagan. She brushed off a suggestion that she is the court's most powerful member because she is so often the crucial fifth majority vote when the court divides 5-4.
"Well, I don't agree," O'Connor said in the profile to air Sunday night on the History Channel. "I think we all do the best we can with each case as it comes along. ... I don't think there's a dominant force and I don't claim to be that force."
O'Connor, 74, gave no clue about her retirement plans.
But if Kerry wins, it will be Chief Justice Hillary.
I think if Kerry wins, it will be Chief Justice Souter.
*shudder*
Thanks for posting this hal.
very intersting.
No, I don't think so. Scalia is generally held to be the most intellectual (not in the lefty, pointy-head sense though) of the justices. You would have a hard time convincing me that Thomas would be a better pick in the next four years.
sounds like a campaign theme . . . . . . .
Clarence Thomas SHOULD be the Chief Justice.
I'd pick Thomas over Scalia in a heartbeat. I don't think I've read anything he has written, or heard him say anything that has caused me even a little discomfort.
And it would be the Mother of all Confirmation Battles!
ML/NJ
If Thomas is elevated to chief justice, it won't get him any more respect.
On the contrary, the liberals will just hate him and Bush more. Equal rights isn't really what they are after, it's to remake the US over into their socialist vision.
President Kerry would have a difficult time ignoring the huge public uproar from the Democratic rank-and-file marching through the streets demanding that he nominate Hillary for chief justice.
I don't see it. I don't see people calling for it in the first place. And I don't see anyone, even John Kerry, stupid enough to try and push that through the Senate.
It made me realize how racism is deeply embedded in the identity politics of the Democrats. They subjected Thomas to the ancient slander that was used as cause to lynch many black males throughout the South: that he sexually assaulted a woman, that his sexual instincts were uncontrollable despite his learning and affluence.
Worse, the "tolerant" people of the left brought forward witnesses who dryly examined Thomas as if he were an animal on the dissection table. The media made further insinuations about Thomas because his wife is white, that somehow he is inauthentically black.
Here is what I thought on the subject 13 years ago, during the hearings. I know, it's a bit whiny and maudlin, but I was 23 years old.
Boy would that be a stupid thing for the Dems to do.
Thomas is probably more congenial than Scalia and would be better for that reason.
Of course Kerry would have to pay Hillary off for her support by giving her the Chief Justice spot if he won.
But if Kerry wins, it will be Chief Justice Hillary. I'll bet Schumer makes it to the USSC if Kerry is elected.
Schumer's been working like the devil to make sure a Democrat gets to choose the composition of the federal courts.
You can see that Schumer's been preparing for the role, by wearing his glasses low on his nose.
I bought that book Judging Thomas. It is an EXCELLENT book.
Longevity.
Nothing (at all) against Scalia, I share your view that he is highly intelligent (even as compared to the others) and for a non-legal type like myself, reading one of his decisions is a great experience in insight and wisdom.
Thomas is much younger and would likely have a longer lasting impact on the court.
I was already into my 40's when the Clarence Thomas hearings, (and the biased coverage by Public TV) caused me to abandon my leftist allegiances.
I didn't want to be bothered with people who had to distort the truth so much.
According to Scalia, Thomas does not believe in stare decisis.
Good post.
Interesting.
BUSH MUST BE REELECTED.
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