Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomasis an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Thomas succeeded Thurgood Marshall and is the second African American to serve on the court...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSupreme Court Justice
Date of Birth23 June 1948
CityPin Point, GA
CountryUnited States of America
rights civil-rights civil-rights-act
We've talked more about civil rights after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than we talked about it before 1964.
rights law justice
A theory deeply etched in our law [is that] a free society prefers to punish the few who abuse the rights of free speech after they break the law rather than to throttle them and all others beforehand.
philosophy believe rights
I don't believe in quotas. America was founded on a philosophy of individual rights, not group rights.
believe rights issues
But what I believe is that if a person's individual rights or right to be a part of our economic system is violated under statute, we aggressively go after it. But we don't issue mandates to businesses that you've got to do this and you've got to do that.
american-judge economics free prevent society somebody
When you prevent somebody from participating in our free society and the economics of our free society, I have some real problems.
cannot certainly decision legal necessary performing texas
Without performing legal acrobatics, I cannot make the instruction confusing. And I certainly cannot do the contortions necessary to find the Texas appellate court's decision 'objectively unreasonable.
deeply dignity friend good man miss strength
We will miss him deeply as a friend and as a colleague. He was a good man who epitomized fairness, dignity and strength of character.
gone ninth taught victims
When I went into the seminary, I was one of those victims of New Math and had not had Algebra I and had no idea what we were doing in New Math in the ninth grade. But when I went into the seminary, they had gone the traditional route and taught first-year algebra.
people
There are so many people who have this idea of who I am because I'm black.
affected people self-esteem
I hear people say it affected your self-esteem to be segregated. It never affected mine.
cease people
It would seem that some black people want to say that when you, as a black, become successful, you cease to be black. That's ridiculous.
decided sometime work
My grandfather, as I said, was industrious. He'd had a variety of jobs and decided sometime in the 1940s that he would never work for anyone. He was also a very independent man.
black blacks disagree leaders point prevailing special treatment view
I disagree with the prevailing point of view of some black leaders that special treatment for blacks is acceptable.
suddenly
My grandparents had died in 1983, and suddenly my brother is out jogging before Mass, and he dies.