00:00I tried a number of times to get him to reflect on his legacy, to say, OK, what opinion of
00:07yours is the most consequential?
00:08He would not answer that.
00:09What do you think your legacy is?
00:11He kind of dismisses all of that.
00:12And his attitude, his approach to being a judge is very much like building a house.
00:21This is an analogy he used.
00:22He said, look, if you're building a house, you want to have the foundation strong and
00:26you want to have it level.
00:28You're framing the walls.
00:30You want the wall straight.
00:31You want the corners to be square.
00:32And he said, if you get that wrong, if the framing leans, the whole house will lean and
00:36it will follow.
00:38He had a very matter of fact, and he has a very matter of fact approach to decision making
00:42where he doesn't think in terms of grand theory.
00:44He goes and looks.
00:46What does the Constitution say?
00:47What are the words of the Constitution?
00:50What were those words understood at the time the Constitution was adopted?
00:54What did the people who were adopting it understand those words to be?
00:58Meaning he thinks of the Constitution as the foundation of the house and he's framing up
01:03some of the rooms.
01:04Exactly.
01:04And he's just following one step at a time.
01:07And another analogy he used.
01:09So the title going further, there is no justice in the history of the court who's been more
01:15willing to reconsider and to overturn precedent than Clarence Thomas has been.
01:20And and he's quite even Roe versus Wade.
01:24Well, Roe is certainly one of them.
01:25And he was he was a dissenter.
01:27He spoke Roe was wrongfully decided, wrongly decided on day one.
01:32And he was an articulate expositor of what was wrong with it and played an integral part.
01:39But if you look at, look, he would dissent in opinions where where nobody else would stand
01:45with him.
01:46I recount Justice Scalia at one point said, Clarence, you're tilting at windmills, you
01:54know, an obvious reference to Don Quixote and Cervantes.
01:58And and and Thomas's response, he said, Nino, windmills are dangerous.
02:09he said, I quit.
02:09He said, I'm going to be inside it.
02:10He said, I'm going to follow one point, and he said, I am going to make a
02:10couple of different living things.
02:10And he said, I'm going to look at him.
Comments