First Principles

An assessment of the first five years of Justice Clarence Thomas's time on the Court

Clarence Thomas is one of the most vilified public figures of our day. Time magazine called him “Uncle Tom Justice,” and famed columnist Nat Hentoff accused him of “having done more damage, more quickly, than any Supreme Court Justice in history.”

To date, however, his legal philosophy has received only cursory treatment. Scott Gerber provides a portrait of Thomas based not on the justice's caricatured reputation, but on his judicial opinions and votes, his scholarly writings, and his public speeches. And what Gerber finds is likely to surprise Justice Thomas’s critics and supporters alike.