MM#302--The People's Justice--Standing Firm for What is Right in the Face of Unrelenting Criticism

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. Today is February 1st, 2024, and I'm going to invite you on a journey to learn about a controversial figure, supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. If you don't know anything about Justice Thomas, you will likely most likely have heard he's the quote cruelest justice, as one major media figure portrayed him, or he's just plain stupid, as another figure said. He's an adversary to the common man, or the worst insult levied against him by the mainstream, many and the mainstream media and many of his own race is that he's an uncle Tom, a traitor to his own race. Nothing, nothing could be further from the truth. So today we're going to take some time and I want to share with you just a glimpse into one of the greatest Supreme Court Justices to have ever served, and we will do this with a new book just out, written by the first Indian American federal judge, amol Tharpar, who sits on the DC Court of Appeals Court, just below the Supreme Court in terms of the hierarchy at the appellate level, and the book is called the People's Justice. And so with that, let's go to our first poll quote. Justice Clarence Thomas walked out of church after Daily Mask on a crisp, clear morning in the fall of 1998. He descended the granite steps of St Joseph's Church on Capitol Hill in Washington DC and he began his walk back to the Supreme Court when a homeless man came rushing towards him. Justice, justice, I got another petition coming to you. The man yelled. Nicole Garnett, one of Justice Thomas' law clerks who had just joined the justice at St Joe's, tensed. But the justice did not. He walked toward the man and soon became immersed in a conversation, and Nicole couldn't hear what the man was saying, but it was certainly animated. The justice listened patiently and, like he always did. After a few minutes Justice Thomas and the man concluded their conversation and the justice rejoined the group of the Supreme Court clerks on the church steps. You know, he said, these are hard days for him. This week was the anniversary of his mother's death. Justice Thomas, it turned out, had known the homeless man for some time when the two first met. The man had become had been addicted to drugs and sadly, that addiction had driven a wedge between him and his mother. But over time the justice had convinced the man to get clean and in the process he had reconciled with his mother before she had passed To Nicole. The story was more proof of what she and many others close to the justice already knew Justice Thomas cares about people. His clerks all aren't the only ones who notice this about him. One of his colleagues on the Supreme Court, justice Sonia Sotomayor, recently described Justice Thomas this way, quote Justice Thomas is the one justice in the building that literally knows every employee's name, every one of them. He is a man who cares deeply about the court as an institution, about the people who work there and about people. Today, a few dispute that Justice Thomas is one of the greatest originalist jurists ever. But sadly, stories like this would show Justice Thomas's true character are rarely told, nor are the stories of the people whose cases have come before him. That is the purpose of this book to tell you what few others will, to give you a face and a voice to those lives have been changed forever by the many cases that have come before the Supreme Court, and to show how Justice Thomas champions our Constitution and the people it protects. So you heard those two nuggets that we can immediately take away about Justice Clarence Thomas. He goes to Mass every day as a practicing Catholic, so his faith, his Catholic faith, must be important to him and we see his character and his genuine love for people, by a homeless person approaching the justice and the incredible quote from one of the most liberal justices on the court, justice Sotomayor. So in fact we see Justice Thomas that he's often criticized because he follows for the most part, an originalist type of philosophy and his jurisprudence. But in reality his character shines through, no matter what type of judicial philosophy he would have. Now, the originalist type of philosophy in judicial circles means he always wants to follow the will of the people and so many people get this judicial intent wrong, this philosophy wrong. They don't understand what originalism is. Essentially started with Justice Scalia, but Justice Thomas came up through that school as well. And here's how the book unpacks this judicial intent. Let's go to the book. Justice Thomas's originalism more often favors the ordinary people who come before the court, because the core idea behind originalism is honoring the will of the people. Originalists believe the American people, not nine unelected judges, are the source of the law that governs us through the Constitution and statutes enacted by our elected representatives. The judge's role is to determine what the words of those documents meant when they were enacted and to apply them to the cases in front of him or her. Nothing more, nothing less. As the originalist, justice Thomas is committed to applying the law equally to all, come what may. Sometimes that will mean that the less sympathetic party triumphs, but more often the opposite is true. Hereon we read you may be surprised by how often originalism counsels a result for the little guy. After all, as Justice Thomas knows and frequently reminds the court, the founders set up the American law to protect the citizens from government and to ensure the law abiding citizens could protect themselves from predatory ones. May be surprised by how often Justice Thomas gives a voice to those forgotten For years. He famously sat silent on a bench because he wanted to respect the advocates' limited time to present their arguments. But Justice Thomas speaks forcefully in his opinions not only about the original meaning of the law but also about those who suffer from its misapplication. His opinions speak for the victims of violent crimes who are often denied justice by legal innovations. He speaks for those who suffer from the federal overreach and from those who are on the losing end of CD government partnerships with wealthy corporations. Throughout his decades on the court, justice Thomas has repeatedly pointed out that when we actually follow the original meaning of the Constitution, the weak and the politically powerless stand to benefit the most. And that is where most people don't take the time to read Justice Thomas's opinions. They simply react to a rolling and they start making attacks right away, which is a shame because it's not anything that justice can actually control. Now what's most fascinating, and which we will explore Another mojo in Liberty Minutes is Clarence Thomas' full biography, because it is indeed fascinating, which we will want to devote much more time to it, to give it, to give the history his background, his biography, justice, you see, justice. You see what I did there. Justice Thomas deserves real justice in hearing his full biography. But seriously, he grew up with a very strong Catholic grandfather who could barely read him right, but he understood the value of education and to him, as this book notes, education equals emancipation, to quote the great Frederick Douglas. And of the 12 stories featured in the book, we're going to cover only one of these stories, which will cover the one on education, because again, we agree with grandfather Thomas that education does equal emancipation. Now, the case featured in the book on education is Zelman v Simmons Harris. Now this is the school vouchers case from Ohio. Now the Wall Street Journal editorial page at the time, in 2002, said of this 5-4 Supreme Court ruling. Quote the US Supreme Court yesterday struck the great blow for equal public education since Brown v Board of Education in 1954. In the process, it also stripped away the last constitution on a moral fig leaf from those who want to keep minority kids trapped and failing public schools. End quote. Now, that was back when the Wall Street Journal editorial page actually had a moral backbone. I'm sorry to say that backbone has weakened considerably since. Regardless, justice Thomas wrote a concurring opinion that is most noteworthy. Let's go back to the book. Justice Thomas agreed with the majority in full. He also added a further concurring opinion addressing the link between the 14th Amendment, the establishment clause in education. Justice Thomas's concurring opinion opened by quoting famed abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass, who had said education means emancipation. As the Supreme Court had said in its famous school desegregation case. Brown v Board of Education, quote it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he has denied the opportunity for an education. Yet in America, justice Thomas wrote quote urban children have been forced into a system that continually fails them. Beginning with first principles, justice Thomas questioned whether the establishment clause placed any relevant limit on Ohio at all. He pointed out, the establishment clause provides that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion. Thus, by its own terms, it does not apply to the states. Justice Thomas acknowledged that the 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, had quote. Fundamentally restructured the relationship between individuals in the states and ensured that the states would not deprive citizens of liberty. After its ratification, in the process called incorporation, the Supreme Court used the 14th Amendment to gradually apply several of the protections from the Bill of Rights to the states and protect individual liberty against infringement by state governments in addition to the federal government. Quote. There would be a tragic irony in converting the 14th Amendment's guarantee of individual liberty into a prohibition on the exercise of educational choice end quote. Yet the challengers of the Ohio voucher program were trying to do just that by, quote handcuffing the states ability to experiment with education. Turning to the details of the case, justice Thomas observed that the Cleveland public schools failure quote. Disproportionately affected minority children most in need of the educational opportunity. He surveyed how things had changed since the 14th Amendment was ratified. Quote. At the time of Reconstruction, blacks considered public education a matter of personal liberation and a necessary function of a free society. A century and a half later quote the promise of the public school education had failed poor inner city blacks. That was why, by the time Zellman reached the Supreme Court, many blacks and other minorities supported school choice programs. Later on we read in conclusion, justice Thomas noted that by the time this case had reached the Supreme Court, 10, listen to me, 10 other states had designed their own school choice programs. This is in 2002. These programs, he said, successfully allowed children to escape the failing urban public schools where so many attempted reforms had fallen short. And he gave Frederick Douglass the last word. And this is beautiful Quote. No greater benefit can be bestowed upon a long benighted people than giving to them, as we are here earnestly this day endeavoring to do, the means of an education. Much good writing, justice Thomas, much like his, what he called his older brother, justice Antonin Scalia, who sadly has passed on. Both of them have written very good, clear judicial opinions. They do not write like lawyers, they do not write like judges. You can read their opinions and know exactly what they're the points they're trying to make. Let's go back to the book for one more quote In Zelman. The Supreme Court approved Ohio's voucher program, but in Cleveland and elsewhere, the fight continues. Despite resistance, parents continue to show up in force for school choice. Take Florida, for example. A Wall Street Journal editorial by William Maddox credits quote 100,000 African-American school choice moms forgiving Governor Ron DeSantis his narrow margin of victory in the 2018 gubernatorial election. Despite whatever the former president says, that's not in the book. I'm sorry that was my own editorial. Going back to the book, while the Ohio leaders who pioneered the voucher program included George Vojniewicz, bishop Pealia, bill Batchelder, david Brennan, fannie Lewis and Bill Patman have retired or passed away, their legacy lives on in the five educational choice programs operating in Ohio today. In Cleveland, in the 2021 school year, 7,886 students received vouchers to attend the school of their choice and were able to choose from 58 participating schools. All Cleveland students are eligible to participate, but low income students continue to get priority. Statewide, the Ed Choice Scholarship program allows more than 50,000 children to attend schools of their choice. At the same time, opponents of the school choice programs have not given up and to this day, they continue to bring challenges, constitutional and otherwise, to such programs around the country. In Ohio, approximately 100 public school districts recently filed suit in state court challenging the Ed Choice Scholarship program. It's amazing the teacher union stranglehold on all these school, public school districts and school boards. Actually, we just heard a tragic, very sad new story coming out of Chicago where schools are having to close because the Illinois legislature and Governor Pritzker has won several court battles to shut down their scholarship program there, which is sad because kids will have to go back to failing schools and hope is going to be lost. Now getting back to this book, wonderful book, justice Clarence Thomas, since his appointment in 1991, when he faced one of the most racist senators to ever have been elected in the second half of the 20th century, our current President, joe Biden, which is the irony of ironies, and we should mention where justice clearance Thomas rightly called then Senator Biden's 11th hour legal shenanigans quote a virtual high tech lynching to keep him off the court. Justice Thomas was absolutely right and we are very grateful that justice Thomas weathered that storm. We hope and pray that, since he has just turned 75 years old, that the good Lord will keep him on the bench for another four years to get past this radical, radical Democrat in office and not give the still most racist man to ever serve in the office in the 21st century, not to give him what is still in his mind, that early 19th century mindset. We don't want to give President Joe Biden the appointment power for justice Thomas's seat. That would be absolutely cruel. So in today's Mojo Minute, I hope you'll check out this book, the People's Justice of the Year Mojo Minute. I hope you'll check out this book, the People's Justice by Amal Tharpar, because it gives us wonderful insight to the many layers of this, one of the greatest Supreme Court justices to have ever served. Many people agree with that. It's not a controversial statement to say that Now, finding the right answer, justice Thomas has observed, is often the least difficult problem. What is needed is quote the courage to assert that answer and to stand firm in the face of the constant wins of protest and criticism. In fact, let's actually close with the words from the book about justice, the greatest justice in serving on the Supreme Court. Now, justice Clarence Thomas. Going back to the book, in fact, that's what Justice Thomas writes whenever a student asks him to sign a copy of the Constitution. Quote this is your constitution and that's the point. The Constitution is the people's law, not anybody else's.