As Justice Clarence Thomas approaches his 25th anniversary on the Supreme Court, it is a fitting occasion to consider his contributions to America and the Court.

More so than any other justice, Thomas has tried to recapture the Constitution’s sense of the division of powers between the state and federal governments. The justice has been the most willing to reconsider whether the Court’s precedents have misread the Commerce and Necessary & Proper Clauses at the expense of the principle of limited legislative powers. As he put it the Constitution does not authorize Congress to regulate “quilting bees, clothes drives and potluck suppers.”