Below is an excerpt from this week’s Kristol Clear newsletter, written by WEEKLY STANDARD editor Bill Kristol. Sign up here to receive Kristol Clear in your inbox every Monday morning.
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There’s almost no one in Washington I admire more than Clarence Thomas—as a man and a public servant. As a White House staffer back in 1991, I played a minor role in his confirmation fight, helping allies in the White House Counsel’s office and the Justice Department in the struggle against enemies without and some who wanted to capitulate within. I’m proud of my small part in that effort. And I’ve always thought President Bush didn’t get enough credit for nominating and sticking by Thomas, and that making possible his tenure on the Supreme Court is one of the signal accomplishments of that administration.
Yesterday marked a quarter-century for Justice Thomas on the Court. He’s produced a body of significant and even remarkable jurisprudence that we’ve had occasion to consider recently in two major articles, by Dan McLaughlin in 2015 and Adam White a few months ago. I highly recommend the two articles as starting points to understand his achievements.
And I recommend supplementing them with a newly released conversation with Justice Clarence Thomas on Conversations with Bill Kristol. In this conversation, Justice Thomas shares personal reflections on the Court, his jurisprudence, and the people, ideas, institutions, and experiences that have influenced him. Justice Thomas also reflects on his late colleague and friend Justice Antonin Scalia. I think you’ll enjoy and learn from the conversation—and get a candid and revealing glimpse of an extraordinary man.
By the way, in preparing for the conversation, I happened to reread a short appreciation I wrote in THE WEEKLY STANDARD in 2007 of Thomas’s memoir, My Grandfather’s Son. I heartily recommend the book, and would repeat now what I wrote then:
I concluded the 2007 piece by arguing that the memoir “suggests one more contribution he could make. Thomas in 2012!” Justice Thomas has resisted entreaties to run, and has (probably wisely!) stayed on the Court. Looking at this year’s race, how fervently I wish we could have Thomas in 2016! But we will have to settle for his extraordinary contributions on the Court to the revival of American constitutionalism, and for the remarkable example he’s provided of personal courage, manly dignity and American patriotism.
