Justice Thomas Is Apparently Reconciling with Yale Law School
Justice Clarence Thomas’ dislike for his alma mater Yale Law School is no secret.
In his memoir My Grandfather’s Son, Thomas wrote that some had suggested he was admitted to Yale because of racial preferences, report Reuters and the Washington Post. “A law degree from Yale meant one thing for white graduates and another for blacks,” he wrote. After graduation, “as a symbol of my disillusionment, I peeled a fifteen-cent price sticker off a package of cigars and stuck it on the frame of my law degree to remind myself of the mistake I’d made by going to Yale.”
He also felt the school failed to support him during his confirmation hearings when another Yale law grad, Anita Hill, accused him of sexual harassment.
Now Thomas appears to be reconciling with the law school, the stories say. On June 28, he will be the keynote speaker at a Yale Law School alumni dinner at the National Press Club. In December, he visited Yale’s campus in what is believed to be his first return to the school.
His first stop at Yale was at the New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Reuters says, quoting from an account in the Connecticut Law Tribune. “I have to go over to the law school now,” he said. “This is kind of a big deal. I was shamefully bitter towards a school that gave me an opportunity to finish up and do OK. And I’ve got to go over and do my mea culpas. I was juvenile, and that’s the way I feel about it.”
