Jan Crawford Greenburg - Justice Thomas's Misunderstood Role

[writersblock26]

Thank you for posting this, ForaTv.

[davetileguy]

she's hot!

[sla4life87]

that bitch is a nasty heeb.

[IndependentRationale]

wrong way to say it in regards to jewish people, but I think liberals expect all blacks to be beholden to their handouts and government cheese...I agree blacks need to wake up and get out of this dogmatic stage...take back personal responsibility

[monkinator66]

he's bush I's lap dog, asshat! read your god-damned history.

[chukmaty]

Thomas is the best justice, the man has guts.

[54spiritedwill54]

He is his own man. That's to be applauded

[sklanger]

"Jew" media? What the fuck is that supposed to mean. When you substitute your own prejudices for those against Thomas, you're no better than those you attack.

[dianeliebowitz]

Obviasouly we don't have any separation of church and state...we give money to Israel...they are only jewish...

[davetileguy]

@dianeliebowitz whaaa?

[dianeliebowitz]

Talking about heros...do you think he knew Billy Preston??? I bet he could sing pretty good...he's got that low low voice like JOhn Lee Hooker. Do you think he's musical...Who's his agent?

[sklanger]

"He doesn't believe in substative due process claus in the 14th amendment"

Holmes didn't believe in "substantive" due process either. So what? And there's no "Substantive Due Process Clause" you utter buffoon. It's the Due Process Clause. Substantive due process is a doctrinal construction that even so great a jurist as Oliver Wendell Holmes disagreed with. So Thomas is in good company. You're an idiot if you think reasonable people can't disagree on matters of jurisprudence.

[jpsartrean]

@sklanger For as great a legal mind as Holmes had, he was certainly not without fault... Consider his views in Buck v. Bell and forced sterilization. Regarding 'doctrinal construction,' while I would agree that creating laws/rights is beyond the proper scope of judicial authority, I also think Justice Thomas should nonetheless give greater deference to stare decisis in this area (for example, the Griswald 'right to privacy' caseline).

[sklanger]

@jpsartrean Stare decisis is not an inexorable command. Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U.S. 808, 828 (1991). To give greater deference to stare decisis "in this area" but not others is to entrench one's policy preferences under the guise of selective deference to past decisions. His approach has the virtue of being consistent.

[jpsartrean]

@sklanger Excellent point - and please don't get me wrong, I am no Justice Thomas basher. But for better or worse, every now and then the Supreme Court is faced with decisions that can have truly massive impacts on society - both present and future. Ordered liberty demands consistency, and thus to abandon stare decisis requires extraordinarily compelling reasons to do so (in my opinion). Check out Justice Breyer's dissent in Arizona v. Gant... Inexorable? No. But highly, HIGHLY persuasive.

[flying45rabbit]

Justice Thomas is an honest genius and also my hero. I am hardly a conservative and not religous at all but i agree with everything Clarence believes in. i thank him for his service to this country.

[right4us]

flying - all the more reason to see the pure malice, and hate the left has for anyone whom doesn't think like they do. When they can't win the debate on issues, and they often can't - its on to vicious attacks to discredit someone. Using their media influence to put out their biased, even blatantly false information. I agree with your assessment of Justice Thomas. We need more like him on our courts.

[texastootall]

I saw her on C=span... this ABC news reporter is a right wing hack!....ABC is clearly still chasing FOX.

[ngatcha10]

Im black and I hate Clarence Thomas. I read a few of his opinions and some are amazingly written, scholarly in fact but his approach and willingness to overturn 200 year old precedent is a huge problem. Blacks dont hate Thomas because of his intellect but because of his willingness to overturn hundreds of supreme court precedent on civil rights and other rights.

[ngatcha10]

Thuragood Marshal is a African America icon and liberal icon because hes willing to evolve the constitution for more rights and liberty.Thomas will never be a black history Icon because hes kowtowing to a old order lead by the Federalist Society, heritage foundation and other right wing extremists

[right4us]

Name some the hundreds of civil rights he would overturn.

[ngatcha10]

He would limit employer liability for sexual harassment.He doesn't believe in substative due process claus in the 14th amendment or a right to privacy. He dosen't believe in separtion of church and state... he has the most narrowest views when it comes to the first amendment... He believes the church should run our lives. I can go on and on about rights he would take away but its a waste of time

[right4us]

I, also, agree on limits of liability, as do others. Note: A 19 yr old just got millions because of strip search at work. That's absurd to try and justify that, she should not get millions for that. You so misrepresent things - he believes in right to privacy, does not belive in church running our lives. One can't debate issues when the other outright falsifies positions. Talk about narrowest views. But bias is blinders to the truth.

[right4us]

I, also, agree on liability and restraints. Note: a 19 yr girl just got millions for a strip search at work. That is absurd to justify - she did not suffer "millions of dollars" of compensatory damages. Furthermore you so generalize and mispreprsent here, its simply dishonest. He does believe in separation of church & state. There should be no state religion. But, not abolition of religion, this countries principles are founded on judeo-christion values, with many references to same...

[right4us]

sorry for the double post.

[right4us]

Regarding the first amendment - it is funny, (rather sad) that it is the democrat liberals that try to shut up free speech. Conservatives are often attacked with both physical and verbal lack of decorum at speeches, by activist dems. Dems already have all the major media (CNN, NBC, MSNBS, CBS, ABC, NY & LA Times) - but still want to shut up talk radio and FOX. That's fascism.

[Uppitybitch]

"Liberal" seems to be a scapegoat 4 the corruption being carried out in Amer. politics! If the right is perfect, then why has a Conservative Gov. allowed mass illegal immigration, failed war, trillion $ debt, toxic: toys/food/medicine/, stolen military secrets, botched H. Katrina, DC corruption (bath room sex, bribs), pass port/mortgage crises, global warming, disabled research (stem cell veto), communist threat w/ no response (China, N. Korea). Why doesnt Fox cover this?

[right4us]

No one in thier right mind would claim the right is perfect, our officials have failed us on immigration, but, we still want the fence first to curtain the flow, then work on solution to illegal populace - Libs want open borders, which is continuing to have a devolving effect on communities as has been documented. The war is not lost, except in the defeatist/democrat mind - in fact its cont. to improve, as has been documented..

[right4us]

..the dems are just as responsible for our debt, having taken thier fair share of pork, re: toys, stolen secrets - regulatory agencies and dept' like the state dept. have dems and independents, as well. In fact is is reported that the state dept is predominately a dem division (white house watches fox, st. dept cnn) Corruption: how about cashman Jefferson, abscam Murtha, or gay brother Barney??..

[right4us]

..conservatives support adult stem cell, not creating embryo babies just to destroy them after getting their parts. Many liberals have no problem with that, and are OK with executing innocent unborns(abortion/part.bir. abort) yet, against exe. hardened ruthless killers. You think we have a mort crisis now, with till a dem raises taxes, drops mort ded, adds health care to our debt, give more handouts at the expense of the middle class..

[right4us]

.. and re: china - the dems seem to already been in their pocket, or visa versa. Moveon has claimed their purchase of the dem party, we know Soros the socialists has bought many shares, we keep seeing China connection donors rising, Kennedy has had his Russian connection exposed - the globalist/hate America leftwing party has become a shame to this country.

[4ourthofjuly]

I guess the "gay" part is relevant to conservatives.

Way to go champ.

[sklanger]

Condoleeza Rice, Thomas Sowell, even Bill Cosby - daring to think for themselves and daring to question liberal orthodoxy. What do they get for asking the hard questions? They get reflexively attacked by a mob of sheep who feel that a black person who thinks heterodox thoughts must be a race traitor.

Clarence Thomas is an inspiration to many precisely because he did not let the lowest denominator keep him down. Nothing outrages the thought-police more than an independent mind.

[sklanger]

'Thomas has "ethnically ceased being an African American."'

Hilarious. It's this sort of vile racial epithet that proves Thomas's point - stray from the group-think (as if blacks are supposed to hold only certain political positions) and you'll be racially attacked by those who disagree with you. It would never occur to them that people can have genuine ideological disagreements. To them, an ideological opponent must have base motives, and thus must be vilified in all respects.

[sklanger]

Great clip. And Greenburg is hot. Contrast the dowdy liberal arm of the Supreme Court legal commentariat - Linda Greenhouse. No contest.

As for those who continue to make uncle tom slurs at Clarence Thomas - shame on you. It's precisely that sort of soft racism and bigotry - that a black man cannot also be a conservative - that a black person has to follow liberal orthodoxy - that Thomas demolishes in his memoir.

[Uppitybitch]

Scientist M Marable asserts that Thomas has "ethnically ceased being an African American." Direct. Spike Lee calls Thomas "a handkerchief head, chicken & biscuit eatin Uncle Tom." Author J Jordan characterizes him as a "virulent Oreo phenomenon" a & an "Uncle Tom calamity." Haywood Burns, former dean at NYU law school & chairman Emeritus of the National Con. of Black Lawyers called Thomas a "counterfeit hero" whose ideals "crushed or forever deferred" the dreams of millions of blacks.

[Uppitybitch]

i do believe and feel somewhat foolish for my decleration but he is a modern day uncle tom and its an injustice.

[right4us]

Which brings to mind the old saying "it's better to remain silent and thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt".

[Uppitybitch]

when I speak of foolishness: it is symbolic of impudence for the context of someone being labeled an "uncle tom". the usage of irony, in my statement, deceived u into believing that i felt unsure about my judgment but i reassure (for im most politically educated) that his radical conservatism is dangerous & has denigrated the integrity of precedent & the judicial system.

[right4us]

His judicial restraint has helped combat the leftist activist judges. He is more in line with the gen population. Free speech, right to bear arms, more state and people control, not gov't control. It's the liberal/left democrat judges that are dangerous (land seizures, gun ownership denial, use foreign laws to decide ours, give terrorists US citizen rights, ect...

[tjtube65]

In the end, with all his self-reliance talk, he has made his living by coolly negotiating on his knees with his head bobbing up and down between the knees of White Republicans. Punk.

[imkingdad]

Your Homophobic Slurs of a great Supreme Court Justice speaks volumes about how truly hate-filled & ignorant a racist you are. Try using some intelligence, some Logic, Facts & reason. stop being an NCAAP toady or Democrat Lap dawg.. Now step & fetch Master Jackson's slippers.

[hamholio]

But why is there the Cosmos theme song??

[drchief88]

Interesting post. Thanks.

[dex216sims]

He is his own man. That's to be applauded

[metalshredder]

Thanks for the clip. Like many I was under the impression that it was the otherway around: Thomas followed Scalia