Clarence Thomas

Michael McGough writes a column on the positive contributions of Clarence Thomas to our jurisprudence. An Originalist, Justice Thomas serves a valuable role in critiqueing his peers decisions and the logic they use, as he did this week in a concurring opinion about the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case - Morse et al. v. Frederick.

This reminded me of a quote I saw the other day:


"On every question of construction carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed."


-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to William Johnson, 12 June 1823)
Reference: Jefferson: Writings, Peterson ed., Library of America
(1475)

I think Thomas Jefferson is smiling as Justice Thomas reminds his peers of this quote!