The Twisted Mind of Clarence Thomas [TEASER]

It is my view that constructive criticism goes with the turf, especially when the stakes are so high and the cases arouse passions and emotions.

And in a free society that treasures freedom of speech and the strength of ideas, we at the court could not possibly claim exemption from such criticism.

Hey, everyone.

This is Andrew Parsons from Prologue Projects.

I'm filling unfriendly on Wally's on paternity leave.

Congrats, Leon.

On this premium episode of 5-4, Peter Michael and Rhiannon are talking about the writings of Justice Clarence Thomas.

Thomas often writes concurrence or dissent that positions him to the right of the court's conservative majority.

He uses his writing to put legal theories into the ether and then in future holdings enshrines them into law.

In a constitution according to Clarence Thomas, the accused have no right to competent representation.

Students are prisoners of their schools, and it's perfectly fine to exclude black people from juries.

This is 5-4, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks.

Welcome to 5-4, where we dissect and analyze the Supreme Court cases that have shredded our civil rights like a young cat.

Shredding Rhiannon's plants.

Real.

I'm Peter.

I'm here with Michael.

Hey, everybody.

And Rhiannon.

It's so real.

I can't be mad.

She's killed house plants.

She's shredded some curtains.

She attacks us physically.

We live in fear.

We cower, actually,

while this three-pound kitten roams the house, right?

But she's too cute.

That's how they learn how to hunt.

So that she will, as an adult, be able to kill little lizards and mice and place them at your feet.

That's right.

Like 3 a.m.

Yeah.

Honored.

And wake up to their little dismembered bodies.

That's right.

Yeah.

This is the price you pay for that beautiful moment.

She's too cute.

She's too cute to be mad at.

And folks, we understand this as an audio medium, but I can promise you, the cat is cute.

It's really cute.

She's

right.

I mean, it's just not owner bias.

She's really cute.

Yeah.

Named after the ancient Jordanian city.

Yeah, and she's orange, so it works, you know, like Google it.

I don't don't know that from being a smart history guy.

I know that from playing the game Civilization.

So like a seven wonders of the world thing?

There are wonders of the world and Petra is one of them.

Okay.

All right.

I can go on about this.

Let me know.

No, let's talk about this wonder of the world, America's wonder of the world.

Let's pivot.

Today we are talking about Clarence Thomas.

Much has been said lately about Mr.

Thomas.

He's always been the subject of some discussion and scrutiny because people think he's enigmatic.

And it has ramped up in the past couple of years due to his prominent place within the conservative supermajority, as well as his being embroiled in a comically endless string of scandals.

That's right.

Tons of media coverage in recent months and years, podcasts.

docuseries, news segments, countless long-form articles.

So what have we learned?

What do we know about Clarence Thomas?

We know from his confirmation hearings that he is a sexual pervert.

That's right.

We know that he is a stupid wife.

Yes.

We know from both his jurisprudence about affirmative action and his reaction to being called out for violating ethics laws, for example, that he is a man incapable of introspection of any type.

Correct.

Right.

But so much ink has been spilled about Thomas's ethical quandaries that it sometimes feels like the truly radical nature of his jurisprudence gets lost in the mix.

So we wanted to do an episode centered around just how extreme his legal philosophy is.

And we thought the best way to do that would be to focus on his dissents and concurrences, which is where like the real crazy shit comes out, right?

Because when you're writing majority, you're sort of speaking for everyone, and there's like an aura of moderation.

But in dissents and concurrences, you don't have to build any consensus, right?

So you get the unfiltered good shit.

Yeah.

So very famously in Dobbs last year, people were concerned that the ruling not just overturned abortion rights, but called into question other long-held rights that were, like abortion, historically found under the substantive due process clause of the 14th Amendment.

Right.

The majority tries to like assure everyone that they have nothing to worry about.

But Thomas, in his concurrence, was like, no, actually you do

because we're coming for gay marriage.

We're coming for contraceptive rights.

Let's go.

Yeah.

Right.

It was a

very clear lens into what was actually going on, both in Thomas's mind and really behind the scenes in the conservative legal movement.

And it was something that was being obfuscated by the majority very intentionally.

We went back through Thomas's greatest hits to find some of the craziest craziest shit that he has put to paper.

We will say up top that this is not comprehensive.

No.

That that would be a very long episode.

Yeah.

No, I think what we did here was like a lot of what he puts to paper is cuckoo bananas, right?

Pure unfiltered cuckoo bananas.

I think what we did here was like more like.

areas of the jurisprudence where we have particular interests, something that over the years has stuck with us about something he said in a particular area, right?

So it's definitely not comprehensive.

He's cuckoo bananas in all of the areas of the law, on all of the Constitution.

Thomas is cuckoo bananas.

So yeah, this is just some of the bananas.

Right.

And there are a lot of ways where he's bananas in a way that's mundane for arch conservatives, right?

Because arch conservatives believe a lot of bananas things, right?

Yeah.

You know, QAnon and whatever, they stormed the fucking Capitol and half the Republican Party thinks the election was stolen and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

They're just a lot of crazy beliefs on the right.

and that extends to the court.

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