Justice Thomas Hits Two-Year Mark for No Questions
The last time Justice Clarence Thomas asked a question during oral arguments was on Feb. 22, 2006.
The case involved the death penalty and the ability of defendants to blame someone else for the crime. Since then, 144 cases have passed and Thomas has not ventured a single question, the Associated Press reports.
The story said Thomas has given two reasons for his silence. The first involves his struggle to speak standard English after learning a creole dialect as a child that was spoken by former slaves on islands off the coast of the southeastern United States. The second is his belief that all the questions detract from the job of judging.
Lately Thomas has focused on the latter reason. Last fall he gave his colleagues some blunt advice: “My colleagues should shut up!” he said, according to an account of a talk he gave at a Michigan college.
“We are there to decide cases, not to engage in seminar discussions,” he said. “I think that they should ask questions, but I don’t think that for judging, and for what we are doing, all those questions are necessary.”
Updated at 1:10 p.m. to correct the number of cases at which Thomas has asked no questions.
