No Argument: Thomas Keeps 5-Year Silence

[kpete]

No Argument: Thomas Keeps 5-Year Silence
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: February 12, 2011

WASHINGTON — The anniversary will probably be observed in silence.

Justice Clarence Thomas has given various reasons for declining to participate in oral arguments.

A week from Tuesday, when the Supreme Court returns from its midwinter break and hears arguments in two criminal cases, it will have been five years since Justice Clarence Thomas has spoken during a court argument.

If he is true to form, Justice Thomas will spend the arguments as he always does: leaning back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, rubbing his eyes, whispering to Justice Stephen G. Breyer, consulting papers and looking a little irritated and a little bored. He will ask no questions.

In the past 40 years, no other justice has gone an entire term, much less five, without speaking at least once during arguments, according to Timothy R. Johnson, a professor of political science at the University of Minnesota. Justice Thomas’s epic silence on the bench is just one part of his enigmatic and contradictory persona. He is guarded in public but gregarious in private. He avoids elite universities but speaks frequently to students at regional and religious schools. In those settings, he rarely dwells on legal topics but is happy to discuss a favorite movie, like “Saving Private Ryan.”
.................

more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/us/13thomas.html

[pinto]

1. Wow.

His inaction obviously speaks louder than his words, or lack of them. Amazing.

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. Being a competent judge wasn't a one of Bush's selection criteria. n/t

[sasha031]

3. Thomas's brain

[randr]

4. Nothing shows more contempt for our judicial system

than failing to participate.

[SpiralHawk]

5. "Better to keep my yap shut and be thot a RepubliStooge." - Clarence T. (R - Toady)

"...than to open my yap and prove it. Sneer."

- Clarence T. (R - Toady)

[barbtries]

6. he needs to be taken off the court

and brought to justice. he probably stays silent because those are his instructions. and he gets bored because no argument can sway him from what it is he will do.

[mfcorey1]

7. Such a damn embarrassment!

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

8. Back in the '90s he was at a local high school here in dc area

and a girl asked him why he doesn't ask questions.

He got very upset at her IIRC he said something about growing up

in the south and he learned not to talk when white people were around.

[Sal Minella]

11. I remember that -- he said he spoke Gullah as a kid and other kids

made fun of him.

But wouldn't you think one would get over that by the time one had been appointed a Justice on the United States Supreme Court?

I think the earlier poster is correct -- he's been given his instructions, and he can do what he's told without saying anything publicly in court.

[catabryna]

9. This is the most concerning part of the article...

"Justice Thomas routinely issues sweeping concurrences and dissents addressing topics that had not come up at argument.

He asked no questions, for instance, in a 2007 case about high school students’ First Amendment rights. In a concurrence, he said he would have overturned the key precedent to rule that “the Constitution does not afford students a right to free speech in public schools.”

Neither side had advanced that position. The basis for and implications of his concurrence were not explored at the arguments, because, by asking no questions, Justice Thomas did not tip his hand."

~ ~ ~

Evidence that this happens is borne out in the Citizen's United case; the Justices issued a ruling on matters that were not actually before the Court. It was a clear case of the very type of judicial activism they like to accuse "liberal" judges of engaging in.

[sufrommich]

10. I think Supreme Court deliberations are a little too heady for Thomas.

What an idiot.Thanks,George!

[madfloridian]

12. He recently had a 2 hour Q & A session at Ave Maria University in FL

A college which Santorum call "God's Warriors". He discussed the role of the judiciary at a religious university. Odd.

Justice Thomas discusses role of judiciary at Ave Maria U in Naples, FL

"Thomas’s comments were just the right note for an audience made up mostly of college students, including some students of the Ave Maria School of Law. He addressed the role of the judiciary in the country, he talked about intricacies of the law and he addressed faith and family during a one-hour question-and-answer session that was typically frank and often funny. Roughly 230 people were present at the session, held in the auditorium of the campus student union, and another 50 or 60 watched the appearance via a video feed elsewhere on campus.

As one student approached a microphone to ask him about his work in all three branches of government, and made mention of Thomas “earning” his position on the highest court in the land, Thomas corrected the student with a joke.

“First of all, I never earned anything,” he said. “I was minding my business and President (George H.W.) Bush appointed me.”

[fishwax]

14. that's not a joke, it's the truth

“First of all, I never earned anything,” he said. “I was minding my business and President (George H.W.) Bush appointed me.”

[mzteris]

13. he knows he's an idiot.

That or the other justices have told him to keep his trap shut in public since THEY know he's an idiot.

[xchrom]

15. he's an aggravating nit wit. nt

[pulledpork]

16. His favorite movie is "Saving Ryan's Privates"

Other than that error, it pretty much sums up why he is the Worst Supreme Court Justice Of All Time. As we now know, also a tax cheat.

[fascisthunter]

17. this is what the GOP wants... meritless idiots to control

congrats on being backwards and sowing the seeds of detriment.

[lordsummerisle]

18. It's absolutely outrageous

that this man in on the Supreme Court for LIFE!