Legal Commentary

Justice Thomas?s Wife Asks Anita Hill for an Apology

By David Bernstein

And she did so in what strikes me as a really bizarre way, by leaving a voicemail for Hill at her Brandeis University office over the weekend: 

?Good morning Anita Hill, it?s Ginni Thomas,? it said. ?I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband.?

Ms. Thomas went on: ?So give it some thought. And certainly pray about this and hope that one day you will help us understand why you did what you did. O.K., have a good day.?

Not quite as bizarrely, but still kind of strange, Hill sent the message to campus security (maybe she does this with all uninvited Thomas-related correspondence?), which then sent it on to the FBI, which assumedly noticed that there is nothing illegal about calling someone and asking for an apology. 

Nor is it clear who leaked the existence of the voicemail to the New York Times.

Without trying to otherwise revisit the Hill-Thomas controversy, I suspect that there were better ways for Ms. Thomas to reach out to Prof. Hill, ways that would be much less likely to wind up in the New York Times.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on October 20, 2010 (boomark / email).