A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Clarence Thomas Posing with His Former Law Clerks!

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on December 25, 2023

IMAGE: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (front and center) hosted a retreat for his former law clerks in 2021 at the Greenbrier, a luxury resort in the West Virginia mountains. Photo is courtesy of the New York Times.

An Editorial Opinion

I saved this photo for Christmas Day!  It is a picture of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at a retreat with his former law clerks in 2021. Thomas refers to these law clerks as his "extended family."

You can pretty much guess who paid for this retreat at the luxurious Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia. Hint: It was NOT Clarence Thomas.

Clarence Thomas hires four law clerks each year. These are the people Thomas launches into the halls of power in America at the conclusion of their clerkship with him.

All of Thomas’ former law clerks worked for Republican appellate court judges prior to getting hired by him.  Unless you are blind, you can see for yourself what else these law clerks have in common.

Today, the reach of Clarence Thomas’ former law clerks is far and wide, and they wield tremendous power and influence across the nation.

So, What's Wrong with this Picture?

To me, it reflects Clarence Thomas’ deep-seated racial bigotry against Black people.  Thomas gets away with his "in-your-face" bigotry because he is Black -- in skin color only.

I know of no case where Clarence Thomas ruled in favor of a Black plaintiff in a civil rights case or a Black criminal defendant during his 32 years on the federal bench. In his judicial rulings, Clarence Thomas has gone out of his way to inflict the maximum pain and suffering possible upon tens of millions of Black Americans and women.

Clarence Thomas is viewed by the overwhelming majority of Black Americans the same way the Jewish Ghetto Police were viewed by Jews living in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.

Ultimately, the Jewish Ghetto Police shared the same fate as their fellow Jewish ghetto residents. When the Nazis liquidated the ghettos in 1942–1943, they killed the Jewish police officers on-site or sent them to extermination camps.

IMAGE: Armband for Jewish Ghetto Police in Warsaw, Poland.

Read the full story about Clarence Thomas and his former law clerks in the December 24, 2023, edition of the New York Times. 

When people show you who they are, believe them!