Law School to Host U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

March 20, 2013

The University community is invited to attend An Afternoon With Justice Clarence Thomas at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9, in the Union Ballroom.

“It is a special honor for Duquesne to host Justice Clarence Thomas,” said Law Dean Ken Gormley. “He receives thousands of invitations to speak at venues across the United States and is able to accept only a handful of these invitations, so we are extremely fortunate that he has agreed to visit Duquesne. Those who attend this program will have a chance to hear directly from one of the most controversial, yet misunderstood and fascinating members of the Supreme Court.”

Thomas was appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1991 by President George H. W. Bush. The associate justice is only the second African American to serve on the Supreme Court. His landmark cases with the court include Printz v. United States, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris and Hamdi v. Rumsfeld.

A graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and Yale Law School, Thomas’s prior posts include serving as an assistant attorney general in Missouri; assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education; chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; and judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He authored the book My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir in 2007.

“Perhaps no justice in modern history has attracted so much public scrutiny, yet he remains unknown to many Americans,” added Gormley. “Justice Thomas’s life story, growing up a descendant of slaves in Pin Point, Georgia, is truly remarkable. Even critics who disagree with his judicial philosophy have acknowledged that he has become one of the intellectual leaders of the Supreme Court.”