Justice Clarence Thomas just passed Justice John Paul Stevens to become the second-longest-serving Supreme Court justice in American history — 34 years, 196 days, and more than 800 opinions. On this segment of The Jenny Beth Show, two of the conservative legal movement's most respected voices reflect on what Justice Thomas has meant to the country, the court, and the future of originalism.
Ken Cuccinelli, former Attorney General of Virginia, calls Justice Thomas "the greatest justice of our lifetimes" — and explains why standing up to a hundred years of bad precedent on substantive due process took the kind of intellectual courage that "sort of strains the use of the word rare." Rod Martin, political commentator and chief executive of Martin Capital, traces the arc of the Democrats' three-decade-long demonization of Justice Thomas — from interracial-marriage attacks to Uncle Tom slurs — and explains why he is one of the most consequential conservative thinkers of our era.
You'll hear why Bruen, Dobbs, and the affirmative-action ruling all flow from one man's 34 years of principled dissent; why Phyllis Schlafly's "a choice, not an echo" line captures his judicial philosophy; and why the originalist revolution everyone said would never happen happened anyway — because one justice held his convictions for over three decades.
Then the segment turns personal. Justice Thomas, in his own words, tells the story of his grandfather — the strict, faithful man who raised him in segregated Savannah and sent him to Catholic school with the warning that not even illness or death would excuse missing a day. Cuccinelli draws the lesson every parent and grandparent needs to hear: Justice Thomas's grandfather had no idea he was raising a future Supreme Court justice, and it would not have changed how he raised him if he had. No matter how much you treasure the child in your hands, God thinks even more of that child than you do.
Call your senators at 202-224-3121 and tell them to pass the SAVE America Act.
More at jennybethshow.com and teapartypatriots.org.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 — A Historic Milestone: 34 Years on the Supreme Court
01:12 — Rod Martin: One of the Greatest Justices in History
02:26 — How Democrats Demonized Clarence Thomas
03:17 — Cuccinelli: The Greatest Justice of Our Lifetimes
04:24 — A Hundred Years of Bad Precedent: The Courage of Dissent
05:04 — A Joyful Warrior for the Truth
05:43 — Thomas in His Own Words: The Grandfather Who Raised a Justice
07:41 — Cuccinelli: God Thinks Even More of Your Child Than You Do
#JennyBethShow #ClarenceThomas #SupremeCourt #Originalism #KenCuccinelli #RodMartin #Constitution #FaithAndFamily #Parenting