Law students can act just as stupidly as any other twenty-somethings. “Thousands” of them “signed a petition that called for [Justice Clarence] Thomas to be removed from the law school faculty” at George Washington University Law School, where Justice Thomas has taught since 2011.
A 20-year-old GWU junior “who helped organize the petition” said that “We are going to continue to work to make sure he doesn’t come back in the spring semester.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/07/27/clarence-thomas-gwu-law-seminar/
Brilliant! Make sure you eliminate all opportunities to listen to people you disagree with. That’s what bigots do.
This is truly a loss for GW law students. They had a real, live member of the U.S. Supreme Court – one of only nine in the universe – come to campus each year to teach a constitutional law class! They’ve just lost that opportunity. The people we seek out to listen to ought to include – not exclude – those whose opinions we don’t share.
Here is the text of the petition that more than 11,000 people have signed. It’s unclear how many of them are GW law students:
"Remove Clarence Thomas from teaching at GW --
With the recent Supreme Court decision that has stripped the right to bodily autonomy of people with wombs, and with his explicit intention to further strip the rights of queer people and remove the ability for people to practice safe sex without fear of pregnancy, it is evident that the employment of Clarence Thomas at George Washington University is completely unacceptable. While also factoring in his wife's part in the attempted coup in January of 2021, Judge Thomas is actively making life unsafe for thousands of students on our campus (not to mention thousands of campuses across the country). Make your voice heard and help us kick Clarence Thomas out of Foggy Bottom."
https://www.change.org/p/remove-clarence-thomas-from-teaching-at-gw
What will be accomplished by shunning a Supreme Court Justice rather than by engaging him? Will he be cowed into silence? Will his mind be changed by a bunch of students who make the absurd claim that “Judge Thomas is actively making life unsafe for thousands of students on our campus”? Will he be intimidated by those who signed the petition or picket in front of his house? Will he decide that life will become easier if he just goes along with the liberal members of the High Court and disregards his own beliefs? Anyone who thinks so probably knows very little about the life and the judicial philosophy of Justice Clarence Thomas.
