First Principles: The Jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas is one of the most vilified public figures of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Time magazine has 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." What is perhaps most remarkable about Justice Thomas's Supreme Court tenure is that, despite the fact that he will be influencing American law for generations to come, his legal philosophy has received only cursory treatment. Here, the author seeks to remedy this state of affairs by casting aside facile, visceral assessments of Thomas - from both the left and the right. The author takes on the formidable task of providing 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.