Justice Thomas on Civility in the Court

According to Adam Folk in the Augusta Chronicle, Justice Clarence Thomas thinks the United States Supreme Court Justices are much more capable of civil discourse than society as a whole:

As he shifted from outtakes of his youth in rural Georgia to his early days practicing law, Thomas reserved much of his roughly 30-minute speech at the Augusta Bar Association's Law Day Banquet to draw a distinction between commentators and "cynics" who demonize those with opposite opinions with a Supreme Court that has not "disintegrated into the unfathomable conduct that we see in public discourse."

Folk provides a few quotes from Thomas' speech, including this one:

"In that room, when we discuss First Amendment, abortion, Second Amendment, death penalty, pre-emption, commerce clause, the cases of great consequence -- Bush v. Gore -- I still have yet to hear the first unkind word."

Civility is not a new topic for Justice Thomas.  His address at New England School of Law, Speech: Civility and Public Discourse, is available at 31 New Eng. L. Rev. 515 (1997).

RR
[image: Justice Clarence Thomas via]