Few have served our nation more admirably than Justice Clarence Thomas; even fewer have faced greater hostility while serving. Shortly after he took the bench, The New York Times editorial page smeared Thomas as the nation’s "cruelest justice."
The attacks continue even today. Those who know Thomas or have even a passing familiarity with his work see these attacks for what they are: desperate, malicious attempts to discredit and diminish a great man.
Thankfully, Judge Amul Thapar, one of the nation’s sharpest legal minds, has written an excellent book that gives the lie to the Times’ absurd moniker and provides a more fitting title for Clarence Thomas: "The People’s Justice."
Books on the law are not always page-turners, but this one is. Thapar brings the law to life. While lawyers will certainly read, enjoy, and learn from "The People’s Justice," it is a book for all Americans. With charming storytelling and a conversational tone, Thapar reminds us — as Thomas so often reminds us — that the Constitution belongs to us all.
Thapar masterfully explains how Thomas recognized that the Constitution defends a working mother of two who was discriminated against in law school admission because of the color of her skin. Or a blue-collar nurse working multiple jobs who had her home taken from her by an avaricious corporation and a government all too willing to accommodate it.
Page after page, Thapar lets Thomas’ own words and reasoning drive a stake through the heart of the claim that defending the Constitution means elevating a piece of paper over the lives of ordinary people. In truth, the Constitution is the great bulwark of our freedom and flourishing. It is, to borrow a phrase from Frederick Douglass, "a glorious liberty document."
The judge who jettisons the Constitution in favor of his or her desired outcome might secure a favorable decision in a specific case; but in doing so, he undermines the rule of law and the will of the people.
Abraham Lincoln warned that those who abandon the Constitution and the rule of law "trample on the blood of his father, and… tear the charter of his own and his children’s liberty." As one of history’s staunchest defenders of our Constitution, Thomas will also be remembered as one of the staunchest defenders of our freedom.
Readers of "The People’s Justice" will come away with a deeper appreciation of our Constitution and a renewed respect for Thomas’ brilliance. And with constant recourse to our Founding Fathers, some of America’s finest heroes, and her most influential documents, Thomas’ opinions offer an education not only in the law, but in citizenship.
Readers will also get a glimpse into the man’s heart.
Judges are often imagined to be stone-faced, hard-hearted, curmudgeonly people. Even a minute with Thomas would disabuse anyone of that notion. His laugh — deep, booming and distinctive — never fails to make those around him smile.
And he never fails to show those around him, he cares. In the book’s introduction, Thapar recounts that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a colleague of Thomas’ for more than a decade, said of Thomas: he is "the one justice in the building that literally knows every employee’s name…[H]e is a man who cares deeply about the court as an institution, about the people who work there — about people."
Yes, Thomas is a brilliant jurist; but more importantly, he is a good man.
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It would not do to write about Thomas without writing about courage.
Attentive readers will notice that most of the cases Thapar writes about in "The People’s Justice" are decided with Thomas in dissent — a somewhat appropriate tribute for a man who often seems like a great boulder, unmoved by the current rushing against him.
Over the course of his tenure on the court, Thomas has shown an unwavering commitment to following the law wherever it takes him. That takes courage.
At a time when statues are more likely to be torn down than built, a reminder of the heroes among us is most welcome. It’s not often that we have the opportunity to honor a great man while he is with us.
We owe Judge Thapar our gratitude for giving us the chance to honor one of our greatest living Americans, and we owe Justice Thomas our undying admiration for his great witness. Truly, he is "The People’s Justice."
