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Colorblind Justice -- A review of Judging Thomas: The Life and Times of Clarence Thomas by Ken Foskett

A review by John Eastman, who clerked for Justice Thomas. The first paragraph:

We can learn much from good biographies, not just about the subject of the biography, but about the times in which he lived and, more broadly, about human nature itself. Ken Foskett's biography of Justice Clarence Thomas is such a book, and we should learn from it: about the boy who grew up in rural, segregated Georgia to become a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; about the prominent African-American leaders who denigrate rather than praise his Horatio Alger story; and about the character of a great man in the face of unjust adversity. But we can also use the biography to move beyond Foskett's own account of Thomas's judicial philosophy to the more nuanced jurisprudence actually embraced by Justice Thomas.

Saving Thomas

by David J. Garrow
The New Republic
A review of Ken Foskett's Judging Thomas

Author's website for the new biography Judging Thomas

Judging Thomas: The Life and Times of Clarence Thomas

Based on the well-done Atlanta Journal-Constitution series.  From the Harper-Collins site:

With objectivity and balance, author Ken Foskett chronicles Thomas's contempt for upper-crust blacks who snubbed his uneducated, working-class roots; his flirtation with the priesthood and later Black Power; the resentment that fueled his opposition to affirmative action; the conservative beliefs that ultimately led him to the Supreme Court steps; and the inner resilience that propelled him through the doors.

Based on interviews with Thomas himself, fellow justices, family members, and hundreds of friends and associates, Judging Thomas skillfully unravels perhaps the most complex, controversial,and powerful public figure in America today. Foskett reveals that beneath the silent, often brooding exterior is a man of depth, empathy, and wit

Justice Thomas and Liberal Originalism

Political science professor Lucas Morel reviews Scott Douglas Gerber's book "First Principles: The Jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas" for the excellent First Things magazine.

Taking Justice Thomas Seriously

Law professor John Eastman, one of Thomas's former clerks, reviews the Gerber book in The Green Bag. As Eastman points out, Gerber understands what few Court observers do -- that Thomas's "liberal" originalism is quite different from the Borkean originalism of Scalia or Rehnquist. Thomas's originalism is rooted in the principles that underlay the Founding, including the Declaration of Independence -- which Scalia abjures in constitutional interpretation. Eastman goes on to refute some of Gerber's misunderstandings or mischaracterizations, such as Gerber's claim that Thomas's view of the Establishment Clause is wrong as a matter of first principles. A valuable review, definitely worth reading.