Podcast: Former clerk on Clarence Thomas

Last week I interviewed David Stras, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who clerked for Justice Thomas during October Term 2002.  Professor Stras discusses the Justice’s relationship with his clerks, his jurisprudence, and his views about the Court’s decisions on race, both before and after he joined the Court.  As Black History Month is drawing to a close tonight, the podcast of our interview is the final piece in SCOTUSblog’s program on Race and the Supreme Court.

The seventeen-minute podcast is linked below, and a road map of highlights follows the jump:

0:26Justice Thomas’ relationship with his clerks
2:19Silence at oral arguments: “Oral argument is overblown in terms of its impact”
4:06Readiness to dissent and concur
6:28Over what areas of jurisprudence has Justice Thomas had the most influence?
8:22Can Justice Thomas be considered an “activist” justice?
9:47United States v. Comstock and Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB: Cases this Term in which Justice Thomas’ reasoning may be unique among the Justices’
11:19Dissatisfaction with the Court’s desegregation cases; clerking for Thomas during the affirmative action case Grutter v. Bollinger
14:25Justice Thomas’ good relationship with former Justice Thurgood Marshall
15:16Justice Thomas and Professor Stras will teach a seminar this term at the University of Minnesota Law School

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