Since Thurgood Marshall--the pre-eminent Supreme Court advocate of the twentieth century--left his post as United States Solicitor General to accept appointment to the Supreme Court, seven presidents have nominated twenty-two persons to fill sixteen vacancies on the high court (counting William Rhenquist and John Roberts twice--in each case the vacancy was first that of an Associate Justice and later that of the Chief Justice). Exactly one of such nominees has been black, and no other black person has even received serious, "short list" consideration. That is a de facto quota of one, strictly adhered to by presidents of both parties.
Clarence Uncle Thomas spent his pre-1991 career toadying to Republicans--first to John Danforth and then to the first President Bush. During much of this time, he was specifically critical of affirmative action programs. It is perhaps ironic that he accepted a quota appointment--what more persuasive example can an affirmative action critic now cite than the Thomas appointment itself?
It is Thomas's conduct once his nomination was in trouble, however, that bespeaks supreme hypocrisy. He invoked the racially charged word "lynching" and thereby dishonored the memory of those who had in fact met their end at the wrong end of a rope. The consequence of a refusal to confirm then-Judge Thomas to serve on a higher court would have been his continued service on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit--hardly comparable to a lynching.
Abe Fortas was not lynched when Republican senators filibustered his nomination for chief justice. Claement Haynesworth, Harold Carswell, Robert Bork, Doublas Ginsburg and Harriet Miers were not lynched.
Clarence Thomas is a steaming pile of hypocrisy.
