• Insider spoke to a former clerk to Supreme Court docket Justice Clarence Thomas.
• Stephen McAllister mentioned Thomas was a “real” individual however he’ll be “judged for what he does as a justice.”
• Thomas has not too long ago confronted scrutiny for his spouse’s alleged effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Justice Clarence Thomas’s controversial concurring opinion within the repeal of Roe v. Wade sparked criticism in regards to the consistency of the conservative justice, who notably doesn’t give a lot away when circumstances are being heard and whose political activist spouse has prompted ethics issues. 

However some who know him on a private stage defended his character, regardless of being at odds together with his ideology.

In his opinion, the divisive justice of over 30 years mentioned the Supreme Court docket ought to “rethink” rulings that established contraception entry and progress on homosexual rights. That, coupled with the controversy round his spouse Ginni’s involvement within the try to overturn the 2020 election, was simply the newest in a string of positions that heightened scrutiny over his place on the Supreme Court docket.

In January, Thomas was the only member of the court docket to vote in favor of former President Donald Trump’s effort to curb the January 6 Home Choose Committee from acquiring paperwork associated to the failed coup try. A petition calling for Thomas’ resignation, arguing that he’s not an unbiased decide, garnered a couple of million signatures. His conservative ideology has additionally led to requires his removing from the court docket. Equally, some college students at George Washington College, the place he’s a lecturer, have additionally referred to as for his removing from the varsity.

A former clerk to Thomas mentioned the more and more bitter notion of the justice stands in stark distinction to who he’s as an individual. 

Stephen McAllister, the US Legal professional for the District of Kansas from 2018 to 2021, clerked for Thomas from October 1991 to January 1992.

“As an individual, I feel he is completely fantastic, however he will likely be judged for what he does as a justice,” McAllister informed Insider, referring to Thomas’ concurring opinion launched when Roe fell on the finish of June arguing that birth-control entry, intimate homosexual relationships, and marriage equality must be “reconsidered.” 

McAllister, who clerked for each Thomas and Justice Byron White individually within the ’90s, mentioned that whereas he “realized from him as a frontrunner,” he would not essentially agree with Thomas’ political opinions.

“I am not saying I agree with all the things that he believes or does, however as an individual, he is very real, heat, really humble and honest and cares rather a lot about folks really as people, ” McAllister mentioned.

Thomas’ Previous Controversies

Early in his profession, Thomas confronted sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill. Hill — who was his assistant whereas he was the assistant secretary of schooling for civil rights and chairman of the US Equal Employment Alternative Fee within the ’80s — accused him of constructing undesirable sexual remarks, typically “graphically of his personal sexual prowess.” He is denied the allegations.

Furthermore, his stances haven’t all the time aligned with some members of the Black neighborhood, together with Rosa Parks, who mentioned Thomas’ presence on the court docket can be a step again from racial progress.

In his concurring opinion launched on the time of Roe’s repeal, Thomas wrote “we should always rethink all of this Court docket’s substantive due course of precedents, together with Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.” The repeal, coupled with Thomas’ concurring opinion, fearful many People — politicians and in any other case — that the nation was backstepping from the progress it is made on reproductive, LGBTQIA+, and civil rights. Thomas, whose spouse is a white conservative activist, didn’t point out wanting into repealing the precise to interracial marriage.

“I am not going to defend essentially the place he comes down on issues,” McAllister mentioned, including that Thomas has all the time held an originalist perspective of the Structure. 

“He has a view of the Structure, nevertheless it’s been constant,” he mentioned. “I imply, he is been that approach from the start, so, there isn’t any surprises.” 

Since his appointment to the Court docket by President George H.W. Bush, Thomas has carried comparatively the identical beliefs. McAllister argued that Thomas makes his choices on the Court docket by means of an “originalist” lens — which means he believes that the Structure must be taken because it was written.

“He thinks the court docket’s gone down the fallacious analytical path since principally the early 1870s,” McAllister informed Insider. He pointed to Thomas’ concentrate on the “privileges or immunities clause of the 14th modification,” which established equal safety underneath the legislation. 

Opinions apart, McAllister mentioned his former boss was “not too excessive and mighty” and knew the custodians or cafeteria employees that different justices could have ignored. 

“He is an exquisite man and individual and I feel in all probability all people who’s labored with him would let you know that he is an especially personable, down-to-earth earth human,” he mentioned. 

Equally, a former assistant to Thomas additionally defended the decide on July 7 in an article responding to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton calling the justice “an individual of grievance.”

“In any occasion, Clarence Thomas was certainly one of 12 Black college students in his Yale Legislation College class. He grew up on a farm through the depths of Jim Crow. Is it simple to overlook childhood humiliations and denigrations? Did Frederick Douglass overlook his enslavement?” the previous assistant, Armstrong Williams, wrote in an op-ed for The Hill.

“Perhaps that’s the final absolute constancy to the Structure,” he mentioned of Thomas’ conservative stances. “I suppose it is the last word originalism. When you take that view that doc actually is the unique intent, then in the event you’ve strayed from that, then the precise path is to return to that even in the event you strayed from it a very long time in the past.”

The Supreme Court docket didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark. Thomas was not instantly reachable for remark.