Federal Judiciary

Podcast: Former clerk on Clarence Thomas

By Akin Gump Supreme Court Practice Group

Last week I interviewed David Stras, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who clerked for Justice Thomas during October Term 2002.  Professor Stras discusses the Justice’s relationship with his clerks, his jurisprudence, and his views about the Court’s decisions on race, both before and after he joined the Court.  As Black History Month is drawing to a close tonight, the podcast of our interview is the final piece in SCOTUSblog’s program on Race and the Supreme Court.

The seventeen-minute podcast is linked below, and a road map of highlights follows the jump:

0:26?Justice Thomas’ relationship with his clerks
2:19?Silence at oral arguments: “Oral argument is overblown in terms of its impact”
4:06?Readiness to dissent and concur
6:28?Over what areas of jurisprudence has Justice Thomas had the most influence?
8:22?Can Justice Thomas be considered an “activist” justice?
9:47?United States v. Comstock and Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB: Cases this Term in which Justice Thomas’ reasoning may be unique among the Justices’
11:19?Dissatisfaction with the Court’s desegregation cases; clerking for Thomas during the affirmative action case Grutter v. Bollinger
14:25?Justice Thomas’ good relationship with former Justice Thurgood Marshall
15:16?Justice Thomas and Professor Stras will teach a seminar this term at the University of Minnesota Law School

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Full post as published by SCOTUSBLOG on February 28, 2010 (boomark / email).