An American Original

Clarence Thomas, Judicial Statesman - Ricochet.com: "Put simply, Thomas is an originalist. It is his view that the only way in which one can legitimately read the Constitution is in light of the understanding of those who framed it in 1787, defended and attacked it that year and the next, and ratified it in the end. For almost seventy-five years, judicial conservatives have acquiesced in the novelties foisted on us by liberal Justices. In signaling their surrender, they have repeatedly fallen back on the legal principle of stare decisis, which asserts that one must stick to what has been decided and honor and build on legal precedent. The conservatives, Thomas contends, have abandoned interpreting the Constitution as written and have put in its place prior jurisprudence. In consequence, he argues, a vast corpus of law has been built on a [series] of egregious and preposterous errors.

As Toobin makes clear in his piece, the question at issue is this: Which takes precedence – the duty of the Justices to accept judicial precedent, or their duty to enforce the Constitution itself? Thomas broke long ago with the other conservatives on the court – and, in opinion after opinion, buttressed with careful historical investigation, he has intransigently laid out an argument that is gradually winning over the other Justices. And, to make matters worse, Toobin laments, he is winning because of the force and integrity of the argument he makes. Toobin is persuaded that, by the force of the line of reasoning that he has developed, Thomas will compel the Court to declare Obamacare unconstitutional."

A man of affirmative action? No. A man of original action. Hang in there man...