Given his brutal confirmation, it is understandable that Thomas wants to surround himself with sympathetic souls. But according to court clerks, other Republican-appointed justices worry that Thomas was so scarred by his clash with the left that he has become disturbingly closed-minded.
It’s been three years since the Anita Hill ordeal, but Thomas is still bitter. Court insiders report that he is openly contemptuous not only of liberalism but of particular liberals on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The 46-year-old Thomas has vowed to ““outlive my critics’’ by serving another 40 years on the court. ““For those who don’t like it, get over it,’’ he said bluntly last month. In his outer office, Thomas has a plaque with a quotation, not a lofty missive about the rights of man but a warning against leaks: ““What is said here shall remain here.’’ There is even some concern among court watchers that his personal experiences have affected his decisions on cases. Clerks from other chambers joke that one of the few times Thomas broke with his conservative colleagues on a criminal case was to vote against prosecution of a man who possessed child porn.
Thomas is so battle-weary that he seems to shy away from intellectual discourse that goes with the job. As a lower-court judge he jousted with the lawyers who appeared before him. But Thomas did not ask a single question during the 99 oral arguments of the 1993-94 term. (At the term-end skit last spring, clerks portrayed Thomas as a life-size card- board cutout.)
Thomas has never received the respect typically accorded Supreme Court justices. When he nominated Thomas, George Bush called him the ““best-qualified’’ lawyer for the job, but instead of distinguishing him- self, he’s become Justice Antonin Scalia’s automatic second vote. To be fair, some of his critics are too harsh. Thomas is considered adept at business-law cases and has written boldly, if controversially, on voting rights, arguing to overturn 25 years of high-court precedent. He is known for his personal warmth, ministering to friends or clerks in their times of trouble. Associates say Thomas just seemed to be getting beyond his bitterness when ““Strange Justice’’ appeared. The book will only resalt his wounds.
