Clarence Thomas’s Case for Shutting Up
By Mike Nizza, NYT blog
Aside from the occasional thrashing, Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court has mostly kept his thoughts during oral arguments to himself. He’s also kept his reasons for staying quiet to himself — after all, he’s not called “The Justice Nobody Knows” for nothing.
On Wednesday night, a question about his lack of questions came up at an appearance in Michigan, and he did not disappoint, according to U.S. News and World Report’s Washington Whispers blog.
“My colleagues should shut up!,” he said in a line that probably sounds worse in print — he suggested it was meant as a joke. But his point remained in later comments.
“I think that they should ask questions,” he explained, “but I don’t think that for judging, and for what we are doing, all those questions are necessary.”
And exactly how many questions are we talking about? DailyWrit, a legal blog, sifted through transcripts from this year’s hearings to find out how often the justices spoke. The answer was 2,244 times. Justice Thomas added nothing to the equation, according the the blog’s useful graphic.
The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog has taken notice, commencing a When-Will-Justice-Thomas-Ask-a-Question Watch on Nov. 6. According to their count, he hasn’t said a thing during oral arguments since Feb. 22, 2006.
Meanwhile other justices have been chatting up a storm.... On Wednesday night, Mr. Thomas argued that it wasn’t always like that, and that history was on his side. Justice Thomas “noted that through history, most top judges rarely asked questions,” Washington Whispers recounted.
And then the justice appeared to stand athwart history, yelling stop: “What’s changed? Have the laws changed? What’s changed? And why are all these questions necessary? That should be the question.”
Aside from the occasional thrashing, Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court has mostly kept his thoughts during oral arguments to himself. He’s also kept his reasons for staying quiet to himself — after all, he’s not called “The Justice Nobody Knows” for nothing.
On Wednesday night, a question about his lack of questions came up at an appearance in Michigan, and he did not disappoint, according to U.S. News and World Report’s Washington Whispers blog.
“My colleagues should shut up!,” he said in a line that probably sounds worse in print — he suggested it was meant as a joke. But his point remained in later comments.
“I think that they should ask questions,” he explained, “but I don’t think that for judging, and for what we are doing, all those questions are necessary.”
And exactly how many questions are we talking about? DailyWrit, a legal blog, sifted through transcripts from this year’s hearings to find out how often the justices spoke. The answer was 2,244 times. Justice Thomas added nothing to the equation, according the the blog’s useful graphic.
The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog has taken notice, commencing a When-Will-Justice-Thomas-Ask-a-Question Watch on Nov. 6. According to their count, he hasn’t said a thing during oral arguments since Feb. 22, 2006.
Meanwhile other justices have been chatting up a storm.... On Wednesday night, Mr. Thomas argued that it wasn’t always like that, and that history was on his side. Justice Thomas “noted that through history, most top judges rarely asked questions,” Washington Whispers recounted.
And then the justice appeared to stand athwart history, yelling stop: “What’s changed? Have the laws changed? What’s changed? And why are all these questions necessary? That should be the question.”
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