With the VRA ruling, give those two quieter ones more of the spotlight: THOMAS and ALITO
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http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/clarence-thomas-texas-affirmative-action-case-opinion-062413
[font size=5]Justice Thomas Has A Few Things To Say[/font]
By Charles P. Pierce
We shouldn't leave [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]today's action at the Supreme Court without taking note of the tantrum thrown by Justice Clarence Thomas[/FONT] in the opinion he wrote in Fisher, the Texas affirmative-action case. It's not often that you see anyone take [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]this much utter self-loathing[/FONT] out for a walk without it ending up in gunplay or a dive off a bridge.
“Finally, while the University admits that racial discrimination in admissions is not ideal, it asserts that it is a temporary necessity because of the enduring race consciousness of our society. Yet again, the University echoes the hollow justifications advanced by the segregationists...The University's arguments today are no more persuasive than they were 60 years ago. ... There is no principled distinction between the University's assertion that diversity yields educational benefits and the segregationists' assertion that segregation yielded those same benefits...It is also noteworthy that, in our desegregation cases, we rejected arguments that are virtually identical to those advanced by the University today. The University asserts, for instance, that the diversity obtained through its discriminatory admissions program prepares its students to become leaders in a diverse society. ... The segregationists likewise defended segregation on the ground that it provided more leadership opportunities for blacks. ... Indeed, no court today would accept the suggestion that segregation is permissible because historically black colleges produced Booker T. Washington, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other prominent leaders. Likewise, the University's racial discrimination cannot be justified on the ground that it will produce better leaders.”
This guy is [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]sitting in what used to be Thurgood Marshall's seat on the court. He's lucky the chair itself didn't burst into flame today[/FONT].
Is it even necessary to point out any more how [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]Thomas has spent his entire career pulling up the ladder behind him[/FONT]? (His tenure as Ronald Reagan's director of the EEOC is a forgotten masterpiece of I've Got Mine, Jack.) He's only become more vigorous about it since he was installed on the Supreme Court as George H.W. Bush's own affirmative-action nominee. He spent a lot of time in his book -- for which he got a $1.5 million advance -- [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]bemoaning the terrible psychological effect affirmative-action had on poor widdle him[/FONT]. He's a lifetime appointee to the highest court in the land, and he's still the dogged victim of a world he never made. Segregation and affirmative action are the same thing in that world. [FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow"]If there's a sadder figure in American politics[/FONT], I can't think of one offhand.
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(the O.P.: Let's see, there's the Swings One Way, the Chin Flicker, the Inaugural Squasher, the Eye Roller, and the the Totem Who Doesn't Speak.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/samuel-alito-rolls-eyes_n_3492704.html
[font size=5]Supreme Court Justice Draws Gasps With 'Mini-Tantrum'
Samuel Alito Rolls Eyes While Ruth Bader Ginsburg Reads Dissent[/font]
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito broke from the high court's usual decorum on Monday morning, rolling his eyes and shaking his head as his senior colleague, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, read her dissents in two cases.
Longtime Supreme Court observer Garrett Epps called it a "mini-tantrum" and "display of rudeness."
"Alito pursed his lips, rolled his eyes to the ceiling, and shook his head 'no,'" wrote Epps in the Atlantic. "He looked for all the world like Sean Penn as Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, signaling to the homies his contempt for Ray Walston as the bothersome history teacher, Mr. Hand."
He added that Alito's gestures "brought gasps from more than one person in the audience."
Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank echoed Epps' admonishment:
"His treatment of the 80-year-old Ginsburg, 17 years his senior and with 13 years more seniority, was a curious display of judicial temperament, or, more accurately, judicial intemperance," Milbank wrote. "Typically, justices state their differences in words -- and Alito, as it happens, had just spoken several hundred of his own from the bench. But Alito frequently supplements words with middle-school gestures." ....
According to Milbank, 10 days earlier, Alito also "glowered" at Justice Elena Kagan and "rolled his eyes and shook his head" while Justice Sonia Sotomayor was speaking. ....
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