Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Visits GMU Law

By: Bran Mahoney

Posted: 11/19/09

Recently, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas visited George Mason School of Law. Justice Thomas came to speak to a class taught by Professor O'Neil, who had clerked with the Justice prior to coming to teach at George Mason. Justice Thomas talked about a variety of current legal issues and the inner workings of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Clarence Thomas, was born in the Pin Point community of Georgia near Savannah June 23, 1948. He married Virginia Lamp in 1987 and has one child, Jamal Adeen, by a previous marriage. He attended Conception Seminary and received an A.B., cum laude, from Holy Cross College, and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974.

Justice Thomas was admitted to law practice in Missouri in 1974, and served as an Assistant Attorney General of Missouri from 1974-1977, an attorney with the Monsanto Company from 1977-1979, and Legislative Assistant to Senator John Danforth from 1979-1981. From 1981-1982, he served as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, and as Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1982-1990. He became a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990. President Bush nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat October 23, 1991.