December 19, 2007
Shaking hands with the last quiet justice
Patterico shook hands with U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas last night, and came away favorably impressed with the man; his handshake was firm, friendly but not too effusive.
Oh, the speech was pretty good, too.
Justice Thomas had some amusing stories to tell. He said when he first got to the Court, he was eating with Chief Justice Rehnquist, Justice O’Connor, and Justice Stevens. He said he was telling them how awed and humbled he was to be there with them, and how he felt he didn’t belong. He imitated Chief Justice Rehnquist’s low voice saying:
Well, Clarence. The first five years you’re here, you wonder how you got here. After that, you wonder how your colleagues got here.
Asked the eternal question about why he doesn’t ask questions in oral argument, he gave his stock answer (this isn’t Perry Mason) and then told a story about how when the relatively quiet Justice White retired, the also quiet Harry Blackmun came up to Thomas, put his arms around him, and said: “Clarence, it’s just us now.” Then Thomas put his arms around himself and said: “Now I sometimes put my arms around myself and say, Clarence, it’s just you now.”
Mrs. Patterico said he failed to say something witty when he met the justice, but the blogger notes that time was short and there were hundreds of people waiting behind him.
It's a familiar dilemma; face-to-face with someone famous you admire and respect, the urge to say something memorable seems overwhelming, but the risk of sounding self-obsessed -- or like an insane stalker -- is quite high.
I think Patterico took the safe (and sane) option, offering a mundane anecdote noting the last time he'd seen the justice, and moved on.
Thomas sounds like a man successfully resisting the egomania that tempts some of his brethren into uncontrollable bloviation -- on the bench and off.
Posted by Mike Lief at December 19, 2007 12:10 PM
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Comments
He didn't speak very long (as opposed to the speakers who introduced the introducers of the introducers), but he did about 45 minutes of questions.
More amazing was to see a standing room-only crowd of very white, very conservative, mostly elderly people in the middle of OC hanging on his every word, obviously adoring him (and it wasn't just the singer, but the entire crowd). We are making progress!
Posted by: andrewdb at December 19, 2007 09:37 PM
You dog! If I'd known in advance about his visit to the Reagan Library, I'd have tried to attend.
Posted by: Mike Lief at December 19, 2007 11:17 PM
I saw him at Chapman U. in Orange.
Posted by: andrewdb at December 21, 2007 06:12 PM