Clarence Thomas at Being an American Essay Contest
0:01 well thank you Dr Templeton for reading all my words that gives me a pass and thank you for your kind introduction I’d like to thank each of you for being out in the middle of the week um this is a rare sighting for me to be out uh at this point in the week and um certainly
0:24 during a sitting week um but this is an important evening uh I’d like to thank my bride for being here it’s one great thing about [Applause] um we’ve um we’ve uh been a team for a
0:47 while and kind of enjoy each other a lot and I must admit I admire my wife because she has never lost sight of the principles that she came to the city to defend and each day whether she’s working at home or um at her Hillsdale
1:11 office and she always has that spirit and that energy to defend the principles of our country it is a wonderful spirit to emulate I tend to be morose sometimes she’s always energetic um I’d also like to take my hat off to my friend Juan Williams um
1:34 I’ve known Juan a long time it is though we grew up together and the one thing in all the agreements and disagreements growth and working through issues he’s always been honest and in this town that counts for a lot
1:55 [Applause] and during some very difficult times he was also courageous and I admire honesty and courage especially in this city and we should preserve and protect that rare
2:19 commodity now what I’d like to do this evening is to not go on too long and to not lecture you I told my wife before we came that I had run out of things to say um between the book and opinions and
2:40 speeches and lectures I there’s nothing else to say and perhaps that I I was kidding her as I was writing my book that I was tired of talking about me and asked her to talk about me of course that didn’t quite work but
3:01 it was worth the try but the I guess it’s not so much that there is a limited supply of ideas but I think that you have a sense at least I do that at some point people should be tired of hearing from
3:22 you um I’ve been fortunate to have been in this town for quite some time now almost 30 years I have I’m rounding the last turn for uh my 18th term on the court and as I was thinking about these young people I realized that many of
3:45 them had not been born when I started there that is a sobering recognition um I’d like to make a couple of points and then a final point and make a considerable amount of time available for these young people’s
4:06 questions which I think are far more important than any of my musings I think that the framers and especially Madison who gave us our Bill of Rights and Jefferson who gave us our Declaration of Independence they understood that for Liberty to
4:28 exist the populists needed to be educated enough to understand Liberty and to be able to defend Liberty they also understood that Liberty was not on automatic
4:48 pilot that Liberty would not exist simply because it was once started and that having won it it was very delicate and had to be protected the one thing that stood out to me about the Bill of Rights Institute
5:10 was that it understands that it understands that to protect this precious but essential commodity young people the Next Generation and the generation after that has to understand what they’re protecting or have to understand understand what they’re protecting and
5:32 why it has to be protected I’ve been as I said on the court for quite some time and I have to admit that when I started this endeavor or for some an ordeal um that you have a level of
5:55 understanding of our great document our founding documents that it’s workable it’s functional but after you work with that document for so many years your level of understanding and appreciation
6:17 grows it becomes as I say to my law clerks through all the opinions all the briefs all the back and forth that I am more of an idealist about this great document today than I was the day I became a
6:38 judge that understanding and that passion about the Constitution about our declaration about our country about our F founding they represent and fuel the basis for wanting to do the job there are people that we have sent
6:59 off to Wars I had the wonderful opportunity that was a little bit a inspiring at the same time overwhelming to meet young people who returned from Iraq with very fresh but very very
7:19 difficult wounds and as they were apologizing to me for taking so much of my time I couldn’t help but think and say to them that it is I who should be apologizing to you for not giving as
7:42 much as you’ve you’ve given to save our country to stand up for us in our liberties [Applause] and so it is the passion that they have the
8:03 commitment that they have about our country in a different way and not In Harm’s Way that fuels working at the court it is not for Joy it is not for self-aggrandisement it’s not for legacy it’s what fuels my wife’s passion to do her job it is the right thing to do it
8:25 is the right thing to try to preserve Liberty [Applause] and I’d also like to say that I’m not one of those who will criticize or beat on my colleagues or the
8:45 institution we have to preserve our institutions and I think that there is a way to disagree and these young people will learn it from us that we can construct it ly say I respectfully but firmly disagree without acting out a disagreeable attitude and
9:10 reaction to other people that is the way it’s been at the court I sat between for between my two friends justices Ginsburg and sudor for about 15 years and I was unable to persuade them but always able to act act in a civil and warm manner of
9:33 people who are engaged in a common Endeavor to try to find the right answers and decisions about our great document in this wonderful country you know sometimes when I get a little down I go on that as I say to my wife the internet and I look up wonderful
9:55 speeches like speeches by Douglas MacArthur to hear him give without a note that speech at West Point duty honor country how can you not hear those words and feel strongly about what we have or how can you not
10:16 reminisce about a childhood where you began each day with the Pledge of Allegiance as little kids lined up in the school yard and then March in two by two or a flag and a crucifix in each classroom I think that those
10:37 things remind me of why it’s important and they fuel they give you that energy to get up every day and to look at cases whether their first amendment or the first section of orisa there are things that affect our country and the things that
10:58 affect the kind of society that we want and things that will affect the lives of these young people here now on with my few remarks about tonight and then hopefully I’ll be able to take quite a few questions I should again repeat that I
11:19 thank all of you who have been a part of this wonderful event and all of you who’ve had the foresight in planning and implementing this essay contest on being an American what a wonderful idea and I congratulate each of the
11:39 young people who are tonight’s winners I had an opportunity to chat with them informally and to take pictures with them and that is always inspiring it’s one thing about this job you know you get a little tired and then you go in and you see your law clerks and you’re really energized you see these young people and you say this is what it’s all
12:01 about this is the good part of the job each of these young people have demonstrated through their essays and their the mature depth of their thoughtfulness and the discipline that it took to Comm communicate their ideas effectively I’m sure they edited and re-edited and thought through and
12:22 rewrote their essays or they would not be the 27 uh Young people who won out of 31,000 I assured them that I would have been in the 30,000 plus who were left home by doing your best you have demonstrated one aspect of what it means
12:45 to many of us to be an American I of course grew up uh during different a different time and under different circumstances in a different era I I will not be labor that things were not as good as they are today but they were good enough for me and they provided the
13:07 soil and there was enough of all of this there for me to be here and as Juan alluded to enough to fuel changes that made it possible for us to be in this room tonight but recently a college student asked me what I would recommend for them as our country continues
13:30 through these difficult economic and financial times I have to tell you I was momentarily at a loss for words and I eventually asked the assembled group of 20 or so young college students
13:51 how many of them had cellphones or rather how many of them did not have cellon phones of course no hands went up they all had cell phones none of them had known a life as a young adult without that convenience
14:12 that is so new so you see today without giving a litany we have plenty and to some perhaps too much and in my travels I have been surprised that how many people think that Prosperity is a constant that things are never to be
14:37 difficult again that there are never to be great challenges indeed it seems that many have come to think that each of us is owed prosperity and a certain standard of living their olded air conditioning cars
14:58 telephon phones televisions some of us by contrast thought that air conditioning was the ultimate luxury that having a television was something that you saved up in one day could get that a telephone was not an
15:19 essential and that a car at least a working one was something to be happy about not something that you were owed I have to admit I’m one of those people who still thinks the dishwasher is
15:40 Miracle what a device and I have to admit that because I think that way I like to load it I like to look in and see how those dishes were magically cleaned but in this era that in the era that many of us grew into
16:02 adulthood we did expect life to be difficult we expected there to be challenges but we hoped that by living virtuous lives and working hard all would eventually work out but there were no guarantees except the guarantee that we
16:26 had the right to try all around us for the most part were in the same boat there of course were many challenges but with all the apparent and real problems most around me in Savannah in Liberty County believed in the
16:46 American dream even though it had either eluded them or had been denied them for countless reasons I found it perplexing as a young man that so many of the people I knew who
17:07 never made it Beyond being domestics and day laborers clung tenaciously to the promises of this country so no matter that they had been denied opportunities because of race or lack of Education or other difficult circumstances they passed on the
17:30 hopes and the dreams that they once had or that they still had and equally important they passed on that sense of obligation that is necessary to see the dream become reality today there’s much focused on
17:52 our rights indeed I think there is a proliferation of Rights I don’t deny that these rights are important they are but I am often surprised by the virtual nobility that seems to be accorded those with grievances at least it seems to me that
18:14 more and more people are celebrated for their Litany of grievances about this or that shouldn’t there at least be equal time for our bill of obligation and our bill of responsibilities what is required of
18:34 us I think we have an idea you know I watch my grandfather I think he is the greatest man I’ve ever known and I admit that you know I told my wife that yesterday was the 26th anniversary of his death why is it that there are certain days we never
18:56 forget that still bring pangs of either pain or a smile to our face that is one of those days but he’s the greatest man I’ve ever known I remember watching him in the midst of a hurricane in Savannah going out of the house with
19:18 wind blowing and Rain driving down he walked through about foot of water to the corner to clean out the sewer so that our house would not flood or I remember when one of our cousins house burnt
19:41 down he began planning immediately how to build another for her before the ashes lost their warmth from the fire and we did in his view that was required of him him as a citizen as a
20:02 relative as a man when I begin to feel overburdened or put upon in Washington or in my job I often like to think of those who have made it possible for us to be here tonight as a free people people like my grandparents people like the man who
20:24 thought it was important to clear the sewer so that hous wouldn’t flood there are those close to us who’ve helped us and made it possible our parents our teachers and our friends and there are those who are not so are in
20:44 the not so distant past who made this country safe and free or who changed it in so many ways for the better those who fought and died and gave in the words of President Lincoln that last full measure of
21:04 devotion I have on many occasions or a number of occasions at when things were becoming particularly routine gone down to my basement to watch Saving Private Ryan I Can’t Tell You Why that particular movie except we have it and it’s about something
21:25 important in our lives we’re award to after so many of his men had died Saving Private Ryan and actually I guess it all starts with the mother being informed that three of her son had Sons had died and watching that poor lady drop to her
21:47 knees that she had lost three of her four children in a war for our country but after many men had died to to save Private Ryan and Captain Mill Captain Miller himself was dying he turned to Private Ryan and he said earn this earn it what
22:12 a burden earn the right to the death of so many people so that you could live and then Private Ryan now an elderly man at the end of the movie turns to his wife for reass insurance and we’ve heard this in real life from some of our elderly
22:33 relatives tell me I have led a good life tell me I’m a good man that is a man who is saying let me know that it was worth it those who signed our Declaration of Independence as Dr Templeton so
22:55 eloquently noted could well have been signing their obituary or their death warrant they were taking on arguably the most powerful man in the world who was none too happy with them and all their Shenanigans but they were willing to
23:17 commit all to put it all on the line the final sentence of the Declaration of Independence as Dr Templeton read is sobering and yet so reassurance and it Bears repeating and for the support of this declaration with a firm Reliance on the
23:40 protection of Divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other Our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor they were willing to give all to obtain Liberty what are we willing to give to
24:02 retain it you young students have already demonstrated at your tender years that you have an idea of what is most important about being an American and their wonderful ideas you know that is bigger that it is
24:23 bigger than us but you also know that to build that great bull workk of Liberty each of you and indeed each of us must live lives worthy of the Liberties that we have inherited and that others have made possible for us in a
24:44 sense we each must hold ourselves as accountable for our lives as Private Ryan held himself accountable for his life many many died to save him and many many more sacrificed and died for us and our
25:07 liberties will we one day be able to say that we have earned what they gave us I congratulate each of these young essay winners and I thank each of you for being here this evening to to also
25:28 congratulate them and I’ll take your questions thank [Applause] you you reading all of them man huh are you going to read the question no we going to get some folks up here to [Applause]
25:50 read good man thank you man congratulations [Applause] Justice Thomas thank you for that speech it was refreshing personal and insightful now we’re going to go to the
26:12 phase of the evening where some of the young sa contest winners will have their questions read to Justice Thomas let me just say before we go to that I have a question for you justice Thomas I understand you’re on the Supreme Court can you handle parking
26:34 tickets yeah I pay them all right ladies and gentlemen tonight’s ESS contest winners enthusiastically submitted their questions and as you’ve heard Justice Thomas has graciously agreed to answer some of them I’d like to have two outstanding individuals
26:56 Brian Jones Jones former general counsel of the US Department of Education and my pal Judge Andrew napalitano of Fox News join me on the stage here they’re going to read the questions from the young [Applause]
27:22 people than you absolutely Absol absolutely getting a lot of trouble for fixing parking tickets here’s the first question Justice Thomas since the Civil War what has changed the way Americans view the Constitution the most and
27:45 why oh that’s um is that from one of the students that’s not from me that’s from one of the students oh my goodness whoa uh I would have to say the 14th Amendment uh for a lot of the obvious reasons the uh equal protection clause and the fact that it assured the rights to um and for the purpose of assuring
28:07 the rights to the freed slaves it assured the rights to uh All America all citizens and it gave dual citizenship and there’s just wonderful if you have a chance and you read Pie versus Ferguson read Harland said it is a fabulous fabulous um uh short decision that I think is just it’s Just Nails it it’s
28:28 just wonderfully done uh not only does he show how to be a judge by separating your personal views from what the Constitution says he shows how what it the the intent of the under the the the the animated the 13th and 14th amendments but the it also is important because you have in it the dual
28:51 citizenship um of the state and the national government and you have um the um doctrines like the doctrine of incorporation that is you get the Bill of Rights applied uh to the states and to the local governments through the doctrine of incorporation so that is a
29:12 big jump because by textually if you look at the Constitution the First Amendment says Congress shall make no law respecting Etc it doesn’t apply to the States but through the doctrine of incorporation that you get through the 14th Amendment um select incorporation which was rather controversial it is then applied in the way that we know it today so it’s had an an enormous impact
29:35 um I’m sure there are other things that have happened um the the when you look at the big gains in the Civil Rights era Etc a lot of that was through the 14th Amendment um so the I would have to say just off the top of my head the 14th Amendment and I bet you someone’s going to hear that and say well no it’s a dormant commerce clause or something
29:58 which is a textual you’ve actually given us a little insight into this already but how have your experiences as a Supreme Court Justice affected you as a person how do it affected me as a person not a whole lot I mean it’s changed my hair uh I have you have some right well
30:21 well I’m thankful for that and I have a bit more girth um but I think as uh just on a personal level it hadn’t really changed me it has not changed me that much I’m I am who I am I’ve been the same person a long time and I kind of like being me um the and I still take out the trash so that’s something you
30:42 know you you never lose touch with reality and you know one of the things that you know I have an opportunity to do things with my bride we go to football games or we go motor homing and it’s really it’s a norm you try to be as normal as possible with all the security considerations and I like that I miss
31:02 that part of life more than anything else um that I can’t just walk around uh anonymously anymore I really truly miss that but the I think though the way it’s really changed me is that you’re really even talking tonight I’m very very reluctant
31:24 to to have a strong opinion on something without having briefs or opinions to read and think through um it slows you down because you know this job is it’s easy for people who have never
31:45 done it and it is and they what I have found in this job is they know more about it than I do um especially if they have the title law professor but
32:06 the um it ALS it also is easy with people who know what they think before they’ve thought they know how they are going to come out and which position is the right position for the rest of us who have to decide and who want to live up to that
32:28 oath to do it the right way it is a little bit it is a lot harder and it requires that you not have these strong uncons stakes in issues that are going to come before you so you’re reluctant to to dig in on these big things that
32:49 are happening in our society until you’ve had a chance to think them through and to you’ve got a case before you so that’s a sort of a long way of saying it slows you down a little bit thanks how does someone who takes out the garbage and loads the dishwasher balance people’s freedom with
33:09 their need for security you know that balance is in the Constitution the um I don’t have to make those policy decisions um and I think what happens is that you can get in these jobs and you can think suddenly that you have more Authority than you’re given
33:31 under article three of the Constitution um I don’t think we are entitled to do that simply because we’re judges I think if anything the the job requires you to take on the a a more humble approach to
33:53 judging and to be willing to say I have no no authority to make those decisions you know you take I remember when I first went on the ca on the court we had uh SE couple of cases involving Haitian refugees and my own views uh early on un unformed and new at
34:17 judging at that level was that I thought that these people should have an opportunity to come into our country but that wasn’t a decision for me as a judge so you it was enormously difficult to balance that limitation with what I wanted to do and over time
34:40 you learn how to do that properly but it is a discipline that when even when you think strongly about something you have no authority to make some of those decisions so the the the balance is struck in the Constitution and in the laws that we we have and my job is to figure out as best I can what those
35:02 balances are and that is imprecise I admit but it has the benefit of being legitimate as opposed to saying I have because I’m in a robe I can make up a new balance because I think the world has changed that’s not my job that’s what you elect people for and that’s what you vote for you don’t assign that
35:23 role to to a new Regal instit ution up at the Supreme [Applause] Court uh the next question is how does your faith or your worldview impact the your role as a Supreme Court Justice
35:43 well first of all I don’t even know what a worldview is anymore I you know you think you have things figured out when you’re young and then as you get older you figured oh my goodness all that’s wrong um I think the more you learn the more I think the more reluctant you are to say I’ve got it all figured out that some of this is beyond me but as far as your faith um I think
36:05 that um it it really gives content to the oath that you took that you took an oath to do a job right you know I hear people say they ask questions like such as um what do you want your legacy to be what what do I know I don’t know any I’m not going to be here anyway when you
36:26 have a Legacy but the the point is that we didn’t do we’re not in the job to establish a legacy we’re in the job to live up to an oath and to do it right and that I think Faith gives content to that because you say so help me God um the other thing is that there are
36:48 some tough cases there are some cases that will drive you to your knees and in those moments you ask for strength and wisdom to have the right answer and the courage to stand up for it but beyond that you don’t it would be illegitimate I think
37:08 and a violation of my oath to incorporate my religious beliefs into the decision-making process uh and I don’t uh uh think that that it’s appropriate so I don’t do that I use it it’s more personal and it under it really helps me to do the job the right way and to do it
37:29 [Applause] properly sticking with the personal Justice Thomas how has your Judicial philosophy changed if at all from law school to the present wow well in law school I didn’t have one I was just trying to graduate uh I you know in law school you
37:51 really don’t know a whole lot you learn substantive due process you try to figure out what emanations from penumbras are and you take your torch classes and your UCC classes and you do your best and um I think what happens is you grow up you I mean you’ve been a
38:12 judge when you begin it’s one thing to learn a case it’s another thing to use that case to decide another case to decide the fate of someone those are two entire enely different Endeavors you know the and this could be totally wrong it may be totally apocryphal but I’ll
38:34 say it anyway recognizing that I disclaim that it’s whether it’s accurate or not but it makes the point there are many people [Music] who think that because they know a theory about law that that’s the same thing is actually judging you’ve done both you know the
38:54 difference the it is much harder to do the judging part than to talk about it so that someone said to me that a great basketball player and they used Michael Jordan at his prime had been criticized by a sports writer who really knew basketball and someone went to Michael Jordan or some other great player and
39:16 said to him this reporter criticized you the sports reporter what do you think of that and his response supposedly was tell him to suit up [Laughter] there it is those are two entirely different Endeavors playing the game and knowing about the game so
39:40 um I think that the that whole process of learning a Judicial philosophy I my Judicial philosophy is to try to discern the intent of the framers in constitutional cases es and in statutory cases the intent of the
40:01 legislature and to try to keep my personal views out of it completely as best I can does that make sense sure thank you okay this one may require two answers but uh do you feel that the American people and government
40:22 adequately uphold the Constitution today yeah well we’ll move on that’s what we do every day let me move on from that I know that trick Brian I didn’t write it uh I you know I don’t know I I don’t
40:43 I can’t judge I don’t I disagree with people about their approaches but I really my my concern about our fellow citizens is a more um Quantified iable or observable concern and that is how few people actually take the time to know what’s
41:04 actually in the Constitution and that’s what’s so admirable here that these that the opportunity to learn about the Declaration the founding documents our framers uh Etc are all being made available to teachers it’s being made available to Young students it’s reinvigorating that sort of Civic
41:25 connection so I think that whether or not I agree with how people come out so it’s not the point but rather that this is an opportunity for them to learn more about that great document it’s right here that you already have it and and you you’ve had thousands tens of thousands of teachers who’ve gone through this program you have access to
41:46 this program probably on the web and through you have 31,000 young people participating in this great essay right that is teaching them about it and once they have that tool and they have that understanding they can make up their own minds and then we can respectfully disagree as uh people who are civil and
42:07 also civic-minded judge napalitano this is going to be the last question we’re running low on time so please offer the last question to Justice Thomas Justice Thomas where do our freedoms come from do they come from the government do they come from the consent of the Govern or do they come from our Humanity Jefferson’s
42:30 listening um I think Jefferson felt that our freedoms were Transcendent and that we were um they were inherent rights and that we in order to be govern governed we were willing to give up some of those rights so I don’t think I
42:53 tended to agree with Ronald Reagan when he said it and I I think he was simply paraphrasing Jefferson our freedoms do not come from the government the government comes from us um the with that though I know they’re
43:13 trying to stay on time i’ I’d like to say judge napalitano I’ve seen you quite a bit and uh you’ve always been such a pleasant uh respectful man and intelligent and I appreciate that um and I always enjoy your commentary uh I’d like to thank Brian I met him as a student at
43:34 Georgetown and 19 years ago when I was a court on the court of appeals and I’m proud of what you’ve done and as I’ve said uh Juan Williams I will admire till I draw my last breath for not because we always agree but we do agree on what’s important the good things and the right
43:54 things and to each of you I want to thank you all for being here you know we get in the city and we can get full of ourselves but in the end we are human beings trying to do the right thing and pass something precious On to the Next Generation in the best way we know how and that is these wonderful things we have in our country our country and our
44:16 founding documents so thank you all for being out here and I appreciate you