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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Five Worst Supreme Court Justices In American History, Ranked (Clarence Thomas is on this list)
Last edited Sat May 13, 2023, 11:57 AM - Edit history (1)
In the legal community, Thomas is considered to be one of the worst SCOTUS justices in history. I suspect that Thomas is going to move up in these rankings
Link to tweet
https://thinkprogress.org/the-five-worst-supreme-court-justices-in-american-history-ranked-f725000b59e8/
Justice Clarence Thomas is the only current member of the Supreme Court who has explicitly embraced the reasoning of Lochner Era decisions striking down nationwide child labor laws and making similar attacks on federal power. Indeed, under the logic Thomas first laid out in a concurring opinion in United States v. Lopez, the federal minimum wage, overtime rules, anti-discrimination protections for workers, and even the national ban on whites-only lunch counters are all unconstitutional.
Though Thomass views are rare today, they have, sadly, not been the least bit uncommon during the Supreme Courts history. He makes this list because, frankly, he should know better than his predecessors. As I explain in Injustices, many of the justices who resisted progressive legislation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were, like Field, motivated by ideology. Many others, however, were motivated by fear of the rapid changes state and federal lawmakers implemented in the wake of the even more rapid changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. It was possible to believe, in a world where factories, railroads, and the laws required to regulate factories and railroads were all very new things, that these laws would, as Herbert Hoover once said about the New Deal, destroy the very foundations of our American system by extending government into our economic and social life.
But Thomas has the benefit of eighty years of American history that Hoover had not witnessed when he warned of an overreaching government. In that time, the Supreme Court largely abandoned the values embraced by Justice Field, and the United States became the mightiest nation in the history of politics and the wealthiest nation in the history of money.
regnaD kciN
(26,044 posts)LetMyPeopleVote
(145,313 posts)Some of the other participants on this list are pretty horrible and had a more of a track record. I can see Alito getting on this list eventually
mikeysnot
(4,757 posts)And cut to the chase
mucifer
(23,550 posts)Celerity
(43,408 posts)Deep State Witch
(10,429 posts)Not to mention KBJ, who just showed up to this shitshow.
lastlib
(23,244 posts)1. Stephen J. Field, AJ
2. Roger B. Taney, CJ
3. James C. McReynolds, AJ
4. Melville W. Fuller, CJ
5. Clarence Thomas, AJ
Hard to disagree with the choices. But I could've made a case for Lewis Powell just for the Powell Manifesto/Memo (bearing in mind that he wasn't on the Court when he wrote it).
dpibel
(2,833 posts)He wasn't on the Court when he wrote the memo. But the memo was the reason he ended up on the Court, and while he was there, he did everything in his power to implement his master plan.
He was a pretty evil guy.
UTUSN
(70,706 posts)Jennike
(15 posts)For real.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)It's when you get off into the woods at the farther sides that judgement and morals get warped. Radical and extreme ideologies always require dishonesty and usually irrationality to support, the farther out the worse. Big part of what makes them extreme instead of mainstream.
And it's worth noting, those on the far left typically become as anti-democracy as the far right. Neither can win elections because most people reject their views, so they "decide" stealing elections and oppressing people who get in their way is the moral and right thing to do.
"All extremists appointed, for real." tRump added another 3 to Clarence Thomas.
Polybius
(15,428 posts)I'd live to see a non-partisan list.
lastlib
(23,244 posts)Number one has to be Chief Justice John Marshall (who wrote Marbury v. Madison, cementing the theory of judicial review, plus McCullough v. Maryland and a couple of other crucial early decisions).
I'd put Louis Brandeis and Oliver Wendell Holmes on the list, along with maybe Felix Frankfurter. Harlan the elder, who dissented in Plessy v. Ferguson, might get a few votes, as would Chief Justice Earl Warren for all the many changes the court brought about in his tenure.
And I'd be remiss not to list my personal favorite, William O. Douglas, who was possibly the most progressive justice ever, but also hold the record for tenure on the Court. (Clarence, you SOB, you'd better die or resign before you break that record. You aren't worthy to shine Douglas' shoes.)
former9thward
(32,023 posts)Everyone making lists has a political point of view and it will always work its way into whatever list is being made.
Polybius
(15,428 posts)Mr. Beat leans left, and I believe is a history teacher. He puts Scalia in at 9 and has many leftward picks.
former9thward
(32,023 posts)In law school I had two classes from SC Justices. One from Scalia and one from O'Connor. Scalia never once used any notes. O'Connor was somewhat detached but very pleasant (for a law school professor).