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Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 3004
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 - 02:30 pm: | 
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Clarence Thomas still silent as Supreme Court talks on and on
24 Feb 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two years and 142 cases have passed since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last spoke up at oral arguments. It is a period of unbroken silence that contrasts with the rest of the court's unceasing inquiries.
Hardly a case goes by without eight justices peppering lawyers with questions. Oral arguments offer justices the chance to resolve nagging doubts about a case, probe its weaknesses or make a point to their colleagues.
Left, right and center, the justices ask and they ask and they ask. Sometimes they debate each other, leaving the lawyer at the podium helpless to jump in. "I think you're handling these questions very well," Chief Justice John Roberts quipped to a lawyer recently in the midst of one such exchange.
Leaning back in his leather chair, often looking up at the ceiling, Thomas takes it all in, but he never joins in.
He occasionally leans to his right to share a comment or a laugh with Justice Stephen Breyer. Less often, he talks to Justice Anthony Kennedy, to his immediate left.
Thomas, characteristically, declined to comment for this article. But in the course of his publicity tour for his autobiography, "My Grandfather's Son," the 59-year-old justice discussed his reticence on the bench on several occasions.
The questions may be helpful to the others, Thomas said, but not to him.
"One thing I've demonstrated often in 16 years is you can do this job without asking a single question," he told an adoring crowd at the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.
The book tour showed that the topic comes up even among friendly audiences.
Indeed, Thomas' comment was provoked by this question: Why do your colleagues ask so many questions?
His response: "I did not plant that question. That's a fine question. When you figure out the answer, you let me know," he said.
The typical hourlong argument session can sometimes be difficult, even for a practiced questioner.
"I really would like to hear what those reasons are without interruption from all of my colleagues," Justice John Paul Stevens said at an argument in the fall.
The newest justice, Samuel Alito, has said he initially found it hard to get a question in sometimes amid all the former law professors on the court.
The last time Thomas asked a question in court was February 22, 2006, in a death penalty case out of South Carolina. A unanimous court eventually broadened the ability of death-penalty defendants to blame someone else for the crime.
In the past, the Georgia-born Thomas has chalked up his silence to his struggle as a teenager to master standard English after having grown up speaking Geechee, a dialect that thrived among descendants of former slaves on the islands off the South Carolina, Georgia and Florida coasts.
He also has said he will ask a pertinent question if his colleagues don't but sees no need to engage in the back-and-forth just to hear his own voice.
Lately, he has focused on the latter reason.
"If I think a question will help me decide a case, then I'll ask that question," he told C-SPAN's Brian Lamb in October. "Otherwise, it's not worth asking because it detracts from my job."
He talked in that same interview about descriptions of him as the silent justice.
"I can't really say that it's unfair to say that I'm silent in that context. I would like to, though, be referred to as the 'listening justice,' you know," Thomas said. "I still believe that, if somebody else is talking, somebody should be listening."
The following month, however, at an event sponsored by Hillsdale College in Michigan, Thomas was more combative when asked about oral arguments.
Suppose surgeons started discussing the merits of removing a gallbladder while in the operating room, Thomas said, as quoted by U.S. News & World Report. "You really didn't go in there to have a debate about gallbladder surgery," he said. Similarly, "we are there to decide cases, not to engage in seminar discussions."
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Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2710
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 11:36 am: |
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You know, I am not bothered by his silence. Perhaps he is right and that the justices do need to do less talking. But I heard on the radio that one of the complaints is that he often is staring at the ceiling, or talking and joking with other justices while folks are giving their arguments. That seems incredibly disrespectful to me. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 11702
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 01:23 pm: |
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I guess Thomas keeps silent and lets people think he's incompetent instead of opening his mouth and proving that he is. It's common knowledge that all of his law clerks write his opinions. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6360
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 10:28 am: |
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I guess Thomas keeps silent and lets people think he's incompetent instead of opening his mouth and proving that he is. It's common knowledge that all of his law clerks write his opinions.
(There it is!) |
Ferociouskitty
Regular Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 87
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 11:02 am: |
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**In the past, the Georgia-born Thomas has chalked up his silence to his struggle as a teenager to master standard English after having grown up speaking Geechee, a dialect that thrived among descendants of former slaves on the islands off the South Carolina, Georgia and Florida coasts.**
I call "bullshit". How many black folks are bi- and tri-lingual--folks who don't have nearly as much education he does!? Whatever, Clarence.
If he is still struggling, it's because he's hung up on his mother tongue as a source of shame, which is ridiculous, but par for the course for him. |
Ferociouskitty
Regular Poster
Username: Ferociouskitty
Post Number: 88
Registered: 02-2008
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 11:02 am: |
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"...AS he does" |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 9970
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 - 03:48 am: |
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For a judge to ask questions, he or she must me versant in the U.S. Constitution, Federal Statutes and judicial precedent.
You can infer from the above what you will. *snicker*
As best I can divine, there is very scant criteria for being a Supreme Court Judge. Hell. Many of those who have sat on the Court have never themselves been judges prior to Supreme Court appointment (and that include the last Supreme Court Chief Justice Reinquist).
But, perhaps, the way to question and challenge Thomas' methodology is explore how and why the other Supreme Court jurists are much more inquisitive than he. I mean, if you can effectively assert that what they are doing is of paramount importance to the proper intepretation of the Constitution and Federal Statutes, you can more persuasively assert that Thomas is NOT doing his job. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 3009
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 - 04:48 am: |
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"I mean, if you can effectively assert that what they are doing is of paramount importance to the proper intepretation of the Constitution and Federal Statutes, you can more persuasively assert that Thomas is NOT doing his job."
He's not doing his job. He doesn't know how. Don't forget, he is only there because; 1.) He is black, 2.) He is ultra conservative -that's it!
"In the past, the Georgia-born Thomas has chalked up his silence to his struggle as a teenager to master standard English after having grown up speaking Geechee, a dialect that thrived among descendants......"
If you believe that unrestrained bullshit lie, than you believe Michael Jackson when he said his whiten skin is the result of vitiligo. Go figure....
"I guess Thomas keeps silent and lets people think he's incompetent instead of opening his mouth and proving that he is."
True. This lawn jockey mascot is the darling of white conservatives. They love him. But anyone with a brain will eventually ask themselves; How can this man possibly understand the far reaching breath and long term consequences of his decisions without questioning cases and issues brought before him? WTF..???
"It's common knowledge that all of his law clerks write his opinions."
This is also true. Law clerks do all the research for each case. When they are done, they hand them to the judge, he or she reads them, mulls over it and renders a decision. End of subject. It's like reading a newspaper. All the work has been done. Your either except or reject the news. A dear friend of mine clerks for a district federal judge here in San Diego. She gave me all the details of what clerks do. She went into great detail about it.
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Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2717
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 - 10:17 am: |
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Cynique, I almost invoked that old saying but decided against it. But yes, that did cross my mind: Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. LOL |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6363
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 - 12:10 pm: |
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As best I can divine, there is very scant criteria for being a Supreme Court Judge.
(One of them is a rating by the ABA. I think Uncle Clarence got the lowest rating of anybody they ever reviewed.
He is a straw man, a stalking host and a hand puppet. He should be ashamed of himself. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6364
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 - 12:12 pm: |
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This is also true. Law clerks do all the research for each case. When they are done, they hand them to the judge, he or she reads them, mulls over it and renders a decision. End of subject. It's like reading a newspaper. All the work has been done. Your either except or reject the news. A dear friend of mine clerks for a district federal judge here in San Diego. She gave me all the details of what clerks do. She went into great detail about it.
(But most of them have at least read them or written them themselves or discussed with the clerks what position they would like to take.
He is a disgrace) |
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