Thomas rebuttal of Jackson

[Hovannes]

I'm not a lawyer. I can't even remember spending a night at a Holiday Inn Express,
but Justice Clarence Thomas opinion rebutting Justice Jackson's opinion on Students for Fair Admission vs President and Fellows of Harvard College,
knocks it out of the park for me. Jackson's opinion, FWIW, could be considered a textbook definition for Wokeness.
I wish I could find a more direct link, but it's worth plowing through the opinions.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/2 ... 9_hgdj.pdf

[Del]

Born into abject poverty in the segregated South, young Clarence Thomas grew up to graduate from Yale Law School. There was a lot of hard work, he overcame numerous obstacles, with many accomplishments and accolades. He passed through a strong phase as an angry young black radical admirer of Malcolm X. He nominally identified as a Democrat, of course.

From Wikipedia:

From 1971 to 1974, Thomas attended Yale Law School as one of twelve Black students. He graduated with a Juris Doctor degree "somewhere in the middle of his class".[39][40] He has said that the law firms he applied to after graduating from Yale did not take his J.D. seriously, assuming he obtained it because of affirmative action.[41] According to Thomas, the law firms also "asked pointed questions, unsubtly suggesting that they doubted I was as smart as my grades indicated".[42] In his 2007 memoir, he wrote: "I peeled a fifteen-cent sticker off a package of cigars and stuck it on the frame of my law degree to remind myself of the mistake I'd made by going to Yale. I never did change my mind about its value."

(I'd sure like to meet a 15¢ pack of cigars someday.)

This is the crux: No one took him seriously, because of Affirmative Action. Everyone assumed that grades and awards where given to him because of his race, and not because he had earned anything by hard work and excellence. Affirmative Action is grossly unjust to the very people it is supposed to help.

To this day, Thomas chooses his clerks from state universities, avoiding Ivy League graduates. Ivy Leaguers already have an over-abundance of wealth and privilege. State school kids earn their place by hard work and excellence, and deserve a shot at proving themselves.

Anyhow, Thomas finally got someone to give him a chance. John Danforth, Republican State Attorney General for Missouri, hired Thomas as a staff lawyer. He is deemed a "Republican" now by default; simply because no Democrat (or corporate or legal firm) gave him an opportunity.

After graduation, Thomas studied for the Missouri bar at Saint Louis University School of Law. He was admitted to the Missouri bar on September 13, 1974.[51] From 1974 to 1977, he was an assistant attorney general of Missouri under state Attorney General John Danforth, a fellow Yale alumnus. Thomas was the only African-American member of Danforth's staff.[52] He worked first in the criminal appeals division of Danforth's office and later in the revenue and taxation division.[53] He has said he considers assistant attorney general the best job he ever had.[54] When Danforth was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976, Thomas left to become an attorney with Monsanto chemical company in St. Louis.[55]

Thomas moved to Washington, D.C., and again worked for Danforth from 1979 to 1981 as a legislative assistant handling energy issues for the Senate Commerce Committee.[56] Thomas and Danforth had both studied to be ordained, although in different denominations. Danforth championed Thomas for the Supreme Court.

President Ronald Reagan nominated Thomas as assistant secretary of education for the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education on May 1, 1981.[57][58] Thomas's nomination was received by the Senate on May 28, 1981, and he was confirmed to the position on June 26, succeeding Cynthia Brown.[59] Thomas was succeeded by Harry Singleton.[4][60] Thomas chaired the EEOC from 1982 to 1990. Journalist Evan Thomas once opined that Thomas was "openly ambitious for higher office" during his tenure at the EEOC. As chairman, he promoted a doctrine of self-reliance and halted the usual EEOC approach of filing class action discrimination lawsuits, instead pursuing acts of individual discrimination.[61]

Those of us who are old enough remember Clarence Thomas's Senate confirmation was much like Brett Kavanaugh's. But no one has ever dared to say that Justice Thomas was "just another diversity hire" -- like a couple of lefty Justices, recently appointed solely for their identity check-box qualities.