Clarence Thomas Popular Books
Clarence Thomas Biography & Facts
Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall and has served since 1991. After Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Supreme Court and has been its longest-serving member since Anthony Kennedy's retirement in 2018. Since Stephen Breyer's retirement in 2022, he is also the Court's oldest member. Thomas was born in Pin Point, Georgia. After his father abandoned the family, he was raised by his grandfather in a poor Gullah community near Savannah. Growing up as a devout Catholic, Thomas originally intended to be a priest in the Catholic Church but was frustrated over the church's insufficient attempts to combat racism. He abandoned his aspiration of becoming a clergyman to attend the College of the Holy Cross and Yale Law School, where he was influenced by a number of conservative authors, notably Thomas Sowell. Upon graduating, he was appointed as an assistant attorney general in Missouri and later entered private practice there. He became a legislative assistant to U.S. Senator John Danforth in 1979, and was made Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education in 1981. President Ronald Reagan appointed Thomas as Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) the next year. President George H. W. Bush nominated Thomas to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990. He served in that role for 19 months before filling Marshall's seat on the Supreme Court. Thomas's confirmation hearings were bitter and intensely fought, centering on an accusation that he had sexually harassed Anita Hill, a subordinate at the Department of Education and the EEOC. Hill alleged that Thomas made multiple inappropriate sexual and romantic overtures to her; Thomas and his supporters alleged that Hill and her political supporters had fabricated the accusation to prevent the appointment of a black conservative. The Senate confirmed Thomas by a vote of 52–48, the narrowest margin in a century. Since the death of Antonin Scalia, Thomas has been the Court's foremost originalist, stressing the original meaning in interpreting the Constitution. In contrast to Scalia—who had been the only other consistent originalist—he pursues a more classically liberal variety of originalism. Thomas was known for his silence during most oral arguments, though has since begun asking more questions to counsel. He is notable for his majority opinions in Good News Club v. Milford Central School (determining the freedom of religious speech in relation to the First Amendment) and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen (affirming the individual right to bear arms outside the home), as well as his dissent in Gonzales v. Raich (arguing that Congress may not criminalize the private cultivation of medical marijuana). He is widely considered to be the Court's most conservative member. Early life Thomas was born on June 23, 1948, in his parents' wooden shack in Pin Point, Georgia. Pin Point was a small community near Savannah founded by freedmen in the 1880s. He was the second of three children of M.C. Thomas, a farm worker, and Leola Williams. Williams had been born out of wedlock; after her mother's death, she was sent from Liberty County, Georgia, to live with an aunt in Pin Point. The family were descendants of enslaved people and spoke Gullah as a first language. Thomas's earliest known ancestors were slaves named Sandy and Peggy, who were born in the late 18th century and owned by wealthy planter Josiah Wilson of Liberty County. Thomas's older sister, Emma, was born in 1946, and his younger brother, Myers, in 1949. Upon becoming pregnant with Thomas's older sister, Leola was expelled from her Baptist church and dropped out of high school after the 10th grade; her father ordered her to marry M.C. in January 1947. After three years of marriage, M.C. sued for divorce, claiming that Leola neglected the children, and a judge granted the request in March 1951. After the divorce, M.C. moved to Savannah and later Pennsylvania, visiting his children only once. Leola went to work as a maid in Savannah during the week and returned to Pin Point on the weekends. Custody of the children was awarded to Leola's aunt. When her aunt's house burned down in 1955, Leola took her children to live with her in the room she rented in a tenement with an outdoor toilet in Savannah, leaving her daughter with the aunt in Pin Point. She asked her father, Myers Anderson, for help. He initially refused but agreed after his wife threatened to throw him out.Thomas and his brother went to live with Anderson, his maternal grandfather, in 1955 and experienced amenities such as indoor plumbing and regular meals for the first time. Despite having little formal education, Anderson had built a successful business delivering coal, oil, and ice. When racial unrest led to widespread protest and marches in Savannah from 1960 to 1963, Anderson used his wealth to bail out demonstrators and took his grandchildren to meetings promoted by the NAACP. Thomas has described his grandfather as the person who has influenced his life the most. Anderson converted to Catholicism and sent Thomas to be educated at a series of Catholic schools. Thomas attended the predominantly black St. Pius X High School in Chatham County for two years before transferring to St. John Vianney's Minor Seminary on the Isle of Hope, where he was the segregated boarding school's first black student. Though he experienced hazing, he performed well academically. He spent many hours at the Carnegie Library, the only library for Blacks in Savannah before libraries were desegregated in 1961. When Thomas was ten years old, Anderson began putting his grandsons to work during the summers, helping him build a house on a plot of farmland he owned, building fences, and doing farm work. He believed in hard work and self-reliance, never showed his grandsons affection, beat them frequently according to Leola, and impressed the importance of a good education on them. Anderson taught Thomas that "all of our rights as human beings came from God, not man", and that racial segregation was a violation of divine law. Education During his freshman year from 1967 to 1968, Thomas attended Conception Seminary College, a Benedictine seminary in Missouri, with the intent to become a priest; no one in Thomas's family had attended college before. After Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, he overheard a fellow student say, "Good. I hope the S.O.B. dies" and "[t]hat's what they should do to all the niggers". The display of racism moved Thomas to leave the seminary. He thought the church did not do enough to combat racism and resolved to abandon the priesthood. He left at the end of the semester. At a nun's suggestio.... Discover the Clarence Thomas popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Clarence Thomas books.
Best Seller Clarence Thomas Books of 2024
-
Nino and Me
Bryan A. GarnerFrom legal expert and veteran author Bryan Garner comes a unique, intimate, and compelling memoir of his friendship with the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.For almost th...
-
Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
Herbert LevyA fascinating exploration of early to midtwentiethcentury politics as seen through the eyes of a Roosevelt technocrat.History seems to repeat itself. With ongoing wars abroad and t...
-
Richard II
William ShakespeareThe authoritative edition of Richard II from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.Shakespeare’s Richard I...
-
Richard III
William ShakespeareThe authoritative edition of Richard III from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.In Richard III, Shakes...
-
Good and Mad
Rebecca TraisterUpdated with a new introductionJournalist Rebecca Traister’s New York Times bestselling exploration of the transformative power of female anger and its ability to transcend into a ...
-
I Dissent
Debbie LevyGet to know celebrated Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgin the first picture book about her lifeas she proves that disagreeing does not make you disagreeable!Supreme Court ...
-
The Nonsense Factory
Bruce Cannon GibneyA withering and witty examination of how the American legal system, burdened by complexity and untrammeled growth, fails Americans and threatens the rule of law itself, by the accl...
-
Created Equal
Michael Pack & Mark PaolettaDrawing on historical documents and exclusive interviews, authors tell the inspiring story of Clarence Thomas's rise from a childhood of poverty and prejudice in the segregated Sou...
-
The Legend of Mickey Tussler
Frank NappiIn the late 1940s, the minor league Milwaukee Brewers are foundering yet again and manager Arthur Murphy is desperate. When he sees seventeenyear old Mickey Tussler throwing apples...
-
The Transition
Daniel KielEvery Supreme Court transition presents an opportunity for a shift in the balance of the third branch of American government, but the replacement of Thurgood Marshall with Clarence...
-
Believing
Anita Hill“An elegant, impassioned demand that America see genderbased violence as a cultural and structural problem that hurts everyone, not just victims and survivors… It's at times downri...
-
Speaking Truth to Power
Anita HillTwentsix years before the #metoo movement, Anita Hill sparked a national conversation about sexual harassment in the workplace when she testified against Clarence Thomas.After her ...
-
The Most Dangerous Branch
David A. KaplanIn the bestselling tradition of The Nine and The Brethren, The Most Dangerous Branch takes us inside the secret world of the Supreme Court. David A. Kaplan, the form...
-
My Own Words
Ruth Bader GinsburgThe New York Times bestselling book from Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg“a comprehensive look inside her brilliantly analytical, entertainingly wry mind, revealing the fa...
-
American Whitelash
Wesley LoweryNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERAn NPR Best Book of the Year Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the YearLonglisted for the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence“American Whitelash is i...
-
Justice, Justice Thou Shalt Pursue
Ruth Bader Ginsburg & Amanda L. TylerRuth Bader Ginsburg’s final book offers an intimate look at her extraordinary life and details her lifelong pursuit for gender equality and a “more perfect Union.”In the fall of 20...
-
Seek and Hide
Amy GajdaNEW YORK TIMES TOP 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2022“Gajda’s chronicle reveals an enduring tension between principles of free speech and respect for individuals’ private lives. …just ...
-
Clarence Thomas and the Lost Constitution
Myron MagnetWhen Clarence Thomas joined the Supreme Court in 1991, he found with dismay that it was interpreting a very different Constitution from the one the framers had writtenthe one that ...
-
The Trump Women
Nina BurleighNew York Times bestselling author and awardwinning journalist, Nina Burleigh, explores Donald Trump’s attitudes toward women by providing indepth analysis and background on the wom...
-
Fraternity
Diane BradyNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYSan Francisco Chronicle The Plain DealerThe inspiring true story of a group of young men whose lives were changed by a visionary mentor &...
-
Becoming RBG
Debbie LevyFrom the New York Times bestselling author of I Dissent comes a biographical graphic novel about celebrated Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Supreme Court justice Ruth Bad...
-
Womb
Leah Hazard“Page for page, I may not have ever learned more from a book.... Womb is a history book as well as a biology book but it’s also an adventure and a celebration.” Rob Delaney, actor ...
-
Thomas William Bonnie v. Clarence T
United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.Before BROWNING, DUNIWAY, and ELY, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:
-
Dinners with Ruth
Nina TotenbergCelebrated NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg delivers an extraordinary memoir of her personal successes, struggles, and lifeaffirming relationships, including her beautiful friendsh...
-
The Brethren
Bob Woodward & Scott ArmstrongThe Brethren is the first detailed behindthescenes account of the Supreme Court in action.Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong have pierced its secrecy to give us an unprecedented view...
-
Clarence Thomas Bowles v. State Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals of TexasIn a trial before a jury appellant was convicted of indecency with a child. See V.T.C.A. Penal Code, Sec. 21.11(a)(2). Punishment, enhanced under V.T.C.A. Penal Code, Sec. 12.42(d)...
-
Shining City
Tom RosenstielNPR Best Book of 2017A polished and gripping political debut that Michael Connelly calls “an edge of your seat thriller,” Shining City is set in DC amid a harrowing Supreme Court n...
-
Reimagining Equality
Anita HillA searing portrait “of the ways in which black men and women have struggled to surmount injustice to own homes”from the heroic lawyer who spoke out against Clarence Thomas (The New...
-
The Complete Transcripts of the Clarence Thomas - Anita Hill Hearings
Nina TotenbergThis volume contains not only the complete verbatim transcript of the testimony given before the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 11, 12 and 13, 1991, but, as Nina Totenberg p...
-
Clarence Thomas and the Tough Love Crowd
Ronald Suresh RobertsIn recent years, black neoconservatism has captured the national imagination. Clarence Thomas sits on the Supreme Court. Stephen Carter's opinions on topics ranging from religion...
-
Original Sin
Samuel A. MarcossonOriginalism is the practice of reviewing constitutional cases by seeking to discern the framers' and ratifiers' intent. Original Sin argues that the "jurisprudence of original int...
-
Justice Corrupted
Ted Cruz. . . with liberty and justice for some. The left has corrupted the U.S. legal system. Wielding the law as a weapon, arrogant judges and lawless prosecutors are intimidating, ...
-
Supreme Discomfort
Kevin Merida & Michael Fletcher“[An] impeccably researched and probing biography . . . invaluable for any understanding of the court’s most controversial figure.”The New York Times Book Review A sweeping, compel...
-
Scalia
Bruce Allen Murphy“[Murphy’s] biography of Justice Scalia is patient and thorough, alive both intellectually and morally….Functions as an MRI scan of one of the most influential conservative thinker...
-
The Supermajority
Michael WaldmanA “terrific, if chilling, account” (The Guardian) of how the Supreme Court’s new conservative supermajority is overturning decades of law and leading the country in a dangerous pol...
-
The Roberts Court
Marcia CoyleFor years, the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John Roberts has been at the center of a constitutional maelstrom. Here, the muchhonored, expert Supreme Court reporter Marcia Coy...
-
Reckoning
Linda HirshmanThe first historyincisive, witty, fascinatingof the fight against sexual harassment, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Sisters in LawLinda Hirshman, acclaimed h...
-
The Enigma of Clarence Thomas
Corey RobinThe Enigma of Clarence Thomas is a groundbreaking revisionist take on the Supreme Court justice everyone knows about but no one knows.“One of the marvels of Robin’s razorsharp book...
-
Injustices
Ian MillhiserNow with a new epilogue an unprecedented and unwavering history of the Supreme Court showing how its decisions have consistently favored the moneyed and powerful. Few American inst...
-
Freethinkers
Susan JacobyAn authoritative history of the vital role of secularist thinkers and activists in the United States, from a writer of "fierce intelligence and nimble, unfettered imagination" (The...