The Enigma of Clarence Thomas

Robin (The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Donald Trump), a political science teacher at CUNY, offers a radical reinterpretation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s jurisprudence, contending that Thomas is first and foremost a kind of conservative black nationalist. He argues that Thomas’s opinions are driven not by a coherent theory of constitutional law but by personal experience, particularly his upbringing: Robin recounts that Thomas, deserted by his father, was raised by his successful and idealized capitalist grandfather, who felt making money was the salvation of black America and was therefore pro-deregulation. Robin deconstructs Thomas’s decisions on high-profile issues including racial discrimination, voting rights, the Second Amendment, and campaign finance, concluding that, for example, Thomas considers affirmative action a tool of elite Americans to protect their privilege and stigmatize African-Americans, and that it is imperative that the Second Amendment extend to personal gun ownership because historically arms were necessary for the protection of black citizens in a racist and hostile society. Robin credibly mines Thomas’s speeches, opinions, and writings in support of his thesis, but the weight he gives to Thomas’s formative experiences feels overstated, and his conclusions are simultaneously too speculative and too pat to sway skeptics. Nonetheless, this novel view of the often-inscrutable Thomas will give court watchers food for thought. (Sept.)