INTERVIEW | How Clarence Thomas Went From Childhood Sleeping on Dirt Floor to Becoming ‘The People's Justice’

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas grew up with little. He and his younger brother slept on a dirt floor, and their mother struggled to make enough money to feed them. When he was a boy, Thomas’ mother sent him and his brother to live with his grandparents in hopes of a better life. 

Thomas’ “grandfather raised them with an iron fist,” federal appeals court Judge Amul Thapar says, “and this becomes important as you go through his jurisprudence, because there were a couple of things his grandfather did that impacted a young Clarence Thomas.” 

Thomas’ grandfather taught him that complaining accomplished nothing, that education was invaluable, and to think for himself, Thapar says. Those principles, he says, have influenced Thomas, now 75, as a Supreme Court justice. 

But despite Thomas’ commitment to the Constitution, he has faced criticism from the Left over the years, something Thapar contends is a result of the justice’s loyalty to judicial originalism. 

“Critics need a caricature because they don't like originalism,” Thapar says. “Why? What is originalism at its heart? It returns the power to the American people.” 

In his new book “The People's Justice: Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories that Define Him,” Thapar details how Thomas has sought through his time on the bench since 1991 to return power to the American people. 

Thapar, elevated to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by then-President Donald Trump in 2017, joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to share stories of Thomas’ life and his legacy as a Supreme Court justice.

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