I guess Clarence Thomas thinks it's better to remove all doubt than just be thought of as a fool....

[marmar]

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — In a dissenting opinion to Thursday’s Supreme Court decision that favored fair-housing advocates, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas drew on the racial composition of a profession where minorities dominate: basketball.

“In our own country, for roughly a quarter-century now, over 70% of National Basketball Association players have been black,” Thomas wrote. “To presume that these and all other measurable disparities are products of racial discrimination is to ignore the complexities of human existence.”

He wrote: “Racial imbalances do not always disfavor minorities.”


Taking another tack, he also criticized “racial balancing” that is limited to certain groups.

“If, for instance, white basketball players cannot bring disparate-impact suits — then we as a Court have constructed a scheme that parcels out legal privileges to individuals on the basis of skin color,” Thomas wrote. ..............(more)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/thomas-dissents-from-fair-housing-decision-by-noting-nbas-racial-composition-2015-06-25

[Downwinder]

1. Isn't “racial balancing” why he is on the Court?

If it were a question of competency, Anita Hill would be in his seat.

[marble falls]

2. Whoa. What a great idea for the next nomnee - Anita Hill.....

From Wiki

Anita Faye Hill (born July 30, 1956) is an American attorney and academic. She is a professor of social policy, law and women's studies at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy and Management.[2]

Hill accepted a position as a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change at University of California, Berkeley in January 1997,[37] but soon joined the faculty of Brandeis University—first at the Women's Studies Program, later moving to the Heller School for Social Policy and Management. In 2011, she also took a counsel position with the Civil Rights & Employment Practice group of the plaintiffs' law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.[7]

Over the years, Hill has provided commentary on gender and race issues on national television programs, including 60 Minutes, Face the Nation and Meet the Press[3][7] She has been a speaker on the topic of commercial law as well as race and women's rights.[7] She is also the author of articles that have been published in the New York Times and Newsweek.[3][7] and has contributed to many scholarly and legal publications in the areas of international commercial law, bankruptcy, and civil rights.[7][38]

In 1995 Hill co-edited Race, Gender and Power in America: The Legacy of the Hill-Thomas Hearings with Emma Coleman Jordan.[3][39] In 1997 Hill published her autobiography, Speaking Truth to Power,[40] in which she chronicled her role in the Clarence Thomas confirmation controversy[3][5] and wrote that creating a better society had been a motivating force in her life.[41] In 2011 Hill published her second book, Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race, and Finding Home, which focuses on the sub-prime lending crisis that resulted in the foreclosure of many homes owned by African-Americans.[12][42] She calls for a new understanding about the importance of home and its place in the American Dream.[5]

Hill was the subject of the 2013 documentary film Anita by director Freida Lee Mock, which chronicles her experience during the Clarence Thomas scandal.[43][44]
Awards and honors

In 2005 Hill was selected as a Fletcher Foundation Fellow. In 2008 she was awarded the Louis P. and Evelyn Smith First Amendment Award[45] by the Ford Hall Forum. She also serves on the Board of Trustees for Southern Vermont College in Bennington, Vermont.[46]

As to her not having been a judge:

http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/7-things-you-might-not-know-about-the-u-s-supreme-court
3. There are no official qualifications for becoming a Supreme Court justice.
The Constitution spells out age, citizenship and residency requirements for becoming president of the United States or a member of Congress but mentions no rules for joining the nation’s highest court. To date, six justices have been foreign born; the most recent, Felix Frankfurter, who served on the court from 1939 to 1962, was a native of Vienna, Austria. The youngest associate justice ever appointed was Joseph Story, who was 32 years old when he joined the bench in 1811. Associate Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who served from 1902 to 1932, retired at age 90, making him the oldest person ever to sit on the court. One thing every justice who’s served shares in common is that all were lawyers prior to joining the court. During the 18th and 19th centuries, before attending law school was standard practice, many future justices got their legal training by studying under a mentor. James Byrnes, who served on the court from 1941 to 1942, was the last justice who didn’t attend law school (Byrnes, who also didn’t graduate from high school, worked as a law clerk and later passed the bar exam.) Harvard has produced more members of the court than any other law school; to date, 20 justices have attended or graduated from the venerable institution, which was established in 1817 and is America’s oldest continually operating law school.

[Snotcicles]

13. I like the idea. I don't think Ginny Will let Tommy stick around if that happens. nt

[marble falls]

14. I think Thomas won't stick around, he's a lite weight and even he can't believe ...

he'll ever get to be Chief.

[Gothmog]

3. Thomas is a really bad judge

[Hepburn]

4. What an asshole...

...and a stupid one at that.

[gratuitous]

5. Shows what an uncommon legal mind Justice Thomas has

I never would have imagined that being a player in the National Basketball Association was a basic human necessity like housing. Looks like the NBA is going to have to start expanding if everyone's going to get this basic need met. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said it.

[lame54]

8. I thought it was based on...

whether one can get the ball into the basket or not

[malaise]

6. Did anyone need more proof

He's a moron

[Hepburn]

10. Hi, Malaise

Yes, Thomas surely is a moron...but look at it this way, that is probably the nicest thing one can say about him!

[malaise]

11. Choking on my coffee

Hi Hepburn

[spanone]

7. what a clueless fool.

[deutsey]

9. Gotta love that enduring Bush legacy

[Orrex]

12. As far as I know, The Temptations were 100% black

Thomas might be on to something here...

[Mosby]

15. Clarence Thomas: Poster Boy For Affirmative Action

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19950626&slug=2128294