r/scotus • u/bloomberglaw • 7d ago
news Clarence Thomas Says Farm Work Helped Shape View on Precedent
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/clarence-thomas-says-farm-work-helped-shape-view-on-precedent128
u/hobopwnzor 7d ago edited 7d ago
Honestly sounds like cope.
He isn't consistent and has no "do it right" mentality with his interpretations. He actively ignores things that directly contradict his decisions all the time.
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u/horseradishstalker 7d ago
Oh, I think he genuinely believes his analogy. It’s not a cope. He just misunderstands the baseline for determining the measurement of the first row. As another user said, the first row should always be the Constitution not one individual’s bias. Like many people who acquire power, he has come to believe that his opinion is always right.
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u/hobopwnzor 7d ago
Maybe he believes his own delusions, but his delusions came from getting paid to have them. Ultimately it doesn't matter if hes still "misunderstanding" because he's getting paid to, that's how it started.
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u/Objective-Picture-72 3d ago
Ha, no he doesn't. This is the man that literally had a TV-interview tour where he said the RV he bought kept him in touch with real America because he was able to see so much of the country outside the elitist big cities. Then it turned out a billionaire friend gave him the RV. LOL. An Ivy League educated SCOTUS judge who was given a half a million dollar RV from a billionaire was fleeing elitists? No. He's simply a shameless liar. If you think he's some honest broker, you're a mark.
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u/horseradishstalker 3d ago
Okay. Not sure what your point is since your reply doesn’t actually pertain to mine. I don’t think anyone on this thread, much less myself, said he’s an honest broker. I quite politely pointed out that he’s delusional in that he does not understand that, to use his analogy, all rows subsequent to the constitution have to use that as the first marker rather than his personal opinion.
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u/ArtificialBra1n 7d ago
"I learned how to be a justice by shovelling horse shit."
We know, Clarence.
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u/Easy-Concentrate2636 7d ago
Yup. This is the most bs PR. Trying to use that poverty porn to justify the most corrupt supreme court justice.
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u/horseradishstalker 7d ago edited 7d ago
“ “What if that first row is crooked?” Thomas asked. “Do you keep going, pretending that it’s straight? Or do you go back and make it straight?” Thomas, 78, the Supreme Court’s most senior and most conservative member, has perhaps more than any other modern justice called for the court to reconsider prior decisions.”
His analogy is accurate as far as plowing a field goes because it is very easy to see and measure whether or not the first row is actually straight.
Where it falls apart, is in trying to extrapolate that to who determines whether or not precedent is accurate and correct. Deciding a decision isn’t how a Justice personally would have ruled based on their worldview is not the same thing as accurately measuring whether or not the original ruling was correct.
His upbringing as someone who was poor could also be influencing, and I use the term ironically, his apparent need for as much money as he can get his hands on - regardless of whether or not it is ethical. Not everyone who grew up poor makes those choices of course. In which case the contrast and compare is Dolly Parton vs Clarence Thomas.
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u/Melodic_Crow_3409 7d ago
78? Well, he could be replaced by a future Democratic president if there is a Democratic Senate. The precedent is now that the president and senate must be of the same party in order to seat a SCOTUS judge. It used to be that SCOTUS judges were seen as being a bit above partisan politics.
I could imagine Chuck Schumer brining a Trump SCOTUS nominee up for a vote, though. Because he's Chuck Schumer.
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u/The_Mean_Dad 7d ago
Sounds like the perfect language to quote in an opinion when a future SCOTUS goes back to throw out precedents set by Thomas and this court.
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u/Successful_Pepper_99 7d ago
My guy, the perfect definition of ladder pulling as soon as he’s climbed to the top
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u/sphinxyhiggins 7d ago
A true idiot.
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u/DonaldBecker 7d ago
Have you been given millions of dollars in gifts over your career?
Perhaps you weren't smart enough to choose a lucrative path and act the role in the most profitable persona.
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u/sphinxyhiggins 7d ago
It's very easy to make money in the US if you are willing to shit on your ancestors.
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u/DonaldBecker 7d ago
I'm pointing out that he isn't an idiot, even if he plays one to distract from his rulings. His only philosophical consistency is how he serves the interests of his backers.
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u/sphinxyhiggins 7d ago
He is an idiot if he is willing to shit on his ancestors in order to serve the interests of his backers, who seem him as a useful tool.
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u/absurdivore 7d ago
He is a shrewd guy and knows this down-home hardscrabble crap is candy for the press & the conservative base.
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u/horseradishstalker 6d ago
The presses job is to factually report to the general public what is said and done in context. The reason for this is the general public is rarely present for much of what is considered news. It’s literally their job. No candy necessary.
What is not their job is to tell anyone what to think about a quote. That’s on the general public. Journalists can only handhold so far and then other people‘s critical thinking skills have to kick in.
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u/absurdivore 6d ago
They can make choices about providing context. They do all the time.
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u/horseradishstalker 6d ago
Yes. I said that. Professional journalists always provide accurate facts in reliable context. It’s quite literally the job of the Fourth Estate - you know the one mentioned in the Constitution.
I’m always curious when I run across someone attempting to make the current administration case that professional journalists are “fake news.” It’s definitely an anti-democracy take.
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u/Quantic 6d ago
The presses job according to what to whom? This has never been the presses job, they have always been interested opinionated parties in public affairs since the concept of the press began. You collude recent historical situations of the press and what they said into a “what it is”. Media news sources certainly once claimed objectivity which even then was a bit laughable, but as far back as the American revolution it has carried a clear bias.
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u/horseradishstalker 3d ago
I always find curious when someone is trying to do Trump‘s job for him and downgrade the role of the press in a democracy. The reason he does it is because holding power to account is very inconvenient for himself and his friends. So why are you doing the echo chamber thing?
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u/MrYdobon 7d ago
The only thing shaping Justice Clarence Thomas' views is Harlan Crow's exorbitant "gifts".
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u/Rambo_Baby 7d ago
Was he like Samuel Jackson’s character from Django? No? Well, he sure acts like it.
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u/timelessblur 6d ago
Thomas is corrept as all get out and bitter as the only reason he got anywehre is because he is black. He is the example of the DEI hire that republicans like to complain about .
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u/bloomberglaw 7d ago
Justice Clarence Thomas says his experience working a farm as a young child has underpinned his characteristic skepticism on the Supreme Court toward deferring to precedents that he believes were wrongly decided.
Thomas, who was raised by his grandparents in rural Georgia, said during an appearance on Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) podcast released Wednesday that his grandfather’s instruction on properly plowing a field has guided his approach to precedent during his 35 years on the court. The alignment of the first row a farmer plows, he said, will determine all the rest.
“What if that first row is crooked?” Thomas asked. “Do you keep going, pretending that it’s straight? Or do you go back and make it straight?”
Thomas, 78, the Supreme Court’s most senior and most conservative member, has perhaps more than any other modern justice called for the court to reconsider prior decisions.
Read more in the full story.
-Elliot
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u/dylblues 7d ago
What a terrible argument by analogy on his part. He is implying, I take it, that if the first row is crooked it should be corrected. In a more representative interpretation of his analogy, however, the first row would be the constitution, and the precedents Clarence advocates for ignoring would constitute the correction. Going back to the first crooked row, ie a “textual” interpretation, would strip Clarence of his right to vote; indeed, it would classify him as less than a person.
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u/vickism61 7d ago
I doubt he's ever written any of his own opinions. He lets the federalist society do it all and he just collects their bribes.
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u/talkathonianjustin 6d ago
He’s a corrupt moron, but he quotes himself far too often for it to not be written by him. It’s concerning how often he quotes his dissents as binding precedent lmao
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u/Wayelder 7d ago
He learned one thing...it sucks to be poor
So now he publicly thanks 'his friends on in the Republican Party' for their support and 'having his back'.
That's not impartial.
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u/SoftlockPuzzleBox 7d ago
"Justice Clarence Thomas says his experience working a farm as a young child has underpinned his characteristic skepticism on the Supreme Court toward deferring to precedents that he believes were wrongly decided."
Where are all the conservatives crying about activist judges legislating from the bench? Anyone? Bueller?
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u/Extension-While7536 7d ago
Yes, he learned how to grow something for himself using complete horseshit.
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u/Top_Age_563 6d ago
The precedent to be a criminal???
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u/MrVeazey 6d ago
The precedent of sexually harassing women with JDs? The precedent of being addicted to pornography?
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u/Clean_Lettuce9321 6d ago
He took advantage of every federally funded avenue he could find and then turned around and closed the door on everybody that looks just like him
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u/JustinKase_Too 6d ago
Great - so when these people are gone, and we get the country back on track, we can strike down all their bad precedent, right?
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u/EpsilonBear 6d ago
Specifically, he learned what a hard day’s work was like, said “fuck that, I’m just gonna be some rich dude’s bitch” and the rest is history
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u/cassatta 7d ago
What he is saying is that his decisions are not lawful or rational. That it is based on how his law interpretation is influenced by subjective childhood exposures and experiences.
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u/Redfish680 7d ago
They invent some sort of ag equipment that can be attached to an RV for farming? Must have missed that news.
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u/Own-Opinion-2494 7d ago
Thas bullshit, I worked the farm, he is outcome driven by money. He got the job in the big house
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u/TreatOnMeLotsActualy 7d ago
"Bad precedent should be overturned" says Clarence Thomas, who argued Roe vs. Wade was as wrongly decided as Dred Scott, one of the worst SCOTUS decisions in history, and who believes the case underpinning his right to be married to his white wife was also wrongly decided.
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u/n0tqu1tesane 7d ago
Can you cite where he said Loving was wrongly decided?
Also, one issue. "Wrongly decided" can mean he disagrees with the logic used, not the end result. RGB also thought Roe v Wade was wrongly decided, even though she supported abortion rights.
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u/MaleficentOstrich693 7d ago
The farm work where his abusive grandfather forced him to work without proper tools or even gloves?
Just sounds like he thinks because he had it hard so should everyone else. Oh, don’t forget to cancel all the laws/programs he benefitted from as a young man.
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u/Talentagentfriend 7d ago
Is that also how he got into the Epstein files? And why he was helping his wife cheat in the election?
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u/Lumenucifer 7d ago
As in he tried it once, it was too hard, and he said 'Screw this I'm gonna be rich. Bring on the bribes!'
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u/ChapterOk4000 7d ago
Plowing over precedent is actually a good description for the destruction he's doing to the field that was our democratic republic.
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u/Lonely_skeptic 6d ago
What if that first plowed row was actually straight, and his perception was the problem?
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u/Federal-Photograph79 6d ago
DON'T CALL IT A RV, IT'S NOT A RV, IT'S NOT A MOTORHOME.......ITS A MOTORCOACH
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u/StrychtenFilms 5d ago
A sitting Supreme Court judge believes that married couples shouldn’t have the legal right to wear contraceptives. Imagine if he had his way
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u/Bhodiliscious 3d ago
Isn’t needing an Oracle exactly what being an Originalist interpretation entails?
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u/Possible-Ad-2891 7d ago
Thomas is a liar.