Legal

"Supreme Discomfort" is a dandy – an impressively researched account of the complicated life of Clarence Thomas, the lone African-American Supreme Court justice. Skillfully written by Kevin Merida and Michael A. Fletcher of the Washington Post, it unfurls – of most interest to this group – what apparently is the most detailed account to date of Thomas' already documented "fascination with pornography," a seeming paradox, given Thomas' votes against it at every turn.

Another topic of interest to this group is Thomas' "womanizing" – Republican parlance when the accused was Bill Clinton. While we all recall the Anita Hill fiasco, there was more.

For perspective, recall that Thomas was raised in a shanty in Pin Point, Georgia, a ramshackle, tragically impoverished area, just south of Savannah. The "Pin Point Strategy," some dubbed it, supported Thomas' Court confirmation by painting a picture of him having spectacular success, despite growing up in the abject poverty that was Pin Point. Not quite!

Thomas, in fact, was born in Pin Point – but at a young age, when his house burned to the ground, was transplanted to Savannah, where he attended Catholic schools through high school, strictly raised by his grandfather, Meyers Anderson. His collegiate career began at Conception Seminary in northwest Missouri, nearly all white (as was his high school). His priesthood aspirations are intriguing, given what has been unearthed lately about the Catholic Church.

However, on the heels of the shooting of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas claims, he overheard one of his classmates make what was intended to be a confidential comment to another, "That's good; I hope the SOB dies." Citing that and "rednecks" there, Thomas abandoned conception – and also, only temporarily as things evolved, Catholicism.

Thomas transferred to Holy Cross, which then had only a dozen African American alumni, where he ultimately became president of the Black Students Association. He went on to Yale Law School. Thomas always was an excellent student. However, solid evidence apparently points to the fact that Thomas was able to attend both Holy Cross and Yale because he was black, rather than in spite of it; paradoxical given his consistent positions – both before and after joining the Court – against affirmative action.

Never able to land a job he wanted at a prestigious law firm (although he was briefly an in-house, major corporate counsel), Thomas went on to work for John Danforth – himself an Episcopal priest and the Republican Senator from Missouri, and who ultimately would be the biggest supporter of Thomas' nomination and ultimate confirmation – first as his Missouri deputy attorney general (alongside John Ashcroft) and, later, as his Senate assistant in Washington. Notwithstanding Thomas' repeatedly expressed disdain for African American lawyers accepting traditionally "black positions," he would become an assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education, and later head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for several years under Reagan and Bush I.

Recall that we dodged one very dangerous bullet in 1987, when ultra-right-wing extremist Robert Bork's nomination to replace Justice Lewis Powell was defeated 58-42, eventually resulting in Anthony Kennedy's seat on the Court. Thomas' nomination was similarly contentious for many reasons, two of which were that he suffered the lowest American Bar Association rating of any Court nominee in 35 years and that he was viewed as an ultra-conservative, "outside the box" thinker, factors that arguably have contributed to some of his bizarre Radical-Right positions as a justice. But he was more nearly defeated than the 52-48 vote in the Senate (after being voted out of committee in a 7-7 tie) would indicate.

The Senate heard about Thomas' college interest in pornography; but it didn't hear how regular a fan he was, particularly the potential testimony of former D.C. corporation counsel Fred Cooke, who saw Thomas rent the XXX video, The Adventures of Bad Mamma Jamma at the Graffiti Video Store in Washington, during the late 1980s, when Thomas was an EEOC Chairman.

Moreover, the Senate (and everyone) heard the testimony of Anita Hill, and Thomas' impassioned denial of her allegations. But the Senate did not hear about Angela Wright, whom Thomas had unceremoniously discharged from the EEOC by taping a note to her chair: "You're fired." Thomas was alleged to have pressured her to date him, including appearing uninvited at her apartment, where he inquired as to her breast size; and commenting "about other women's anatomies in her presence"; that a staffer had a "big ass."

But only Senators Arlen Specter and Hank Brown voted to extend his confirmation hearings, which could have resulted in all of that additional testimony. What if Cooke and Wright had testified, bolstering Anita Hill's allegations? Another Bork-style defeat, in the still-Democratic (57-43) Senate? Credible sources believe so.

Shortly after Thomas was sworn in, the Pennsylvania Law Review published a previously private letter to Thomas from former circuit chief judge A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., a long-time and very highly respected African-American jurist. After its publication, the letter spread like wildfire around the legal and black communities. It relentlessly took Thomas to task, reminding him of the unique struggles of the black community dating back to the slavery and ensuing Jim Crow eras. Upon reading it, NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wondered, "How can someone who benefited so richly from affirmative action not support the same remedy for those in similar circumstances?"

This intriguing book – from whose authors Thomas rebuffed repeated requests to be interviewed – explores those and other imponderables about him, and is recommended reading for any political or Supreme Court junkie.

"Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas," by Kevin Merida & Michael A. Fletcher; Doubleday, New York 2007; 422 pages, $26.95.

(Clyde DeWitt is a Los Angeles and Las Vegas attorney, whose practice has been focused on adult entertainment since 1980. He can be reached through AVN's offices, or at clydedewitt@earthlink.net. Readers are considered a valuable source of court decisions, legal gossip and information from around the country, all of which is received with interest. Books, pro and con, are encouraged to be submitted for review, but they will not be returned. This column does not constitute legal advice but, rather, serves to inform readers of legal news, cases and editorial comment about legal developments and trends. Readers who believe anything reported in this column might impact them should contact their personal attorneys.