Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas was born on June 23, 1948, in Pin Point, Georgia, and raised by his grandfather in a poor Gullah community after his father left the family. He has served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1991, nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall, making him the second African American to serve on the Court. His confirmation hearings were bitterly contested over Anita Hills accusation that he had sexually harassed her, and the Senate confirmed him by a vote of 52 to 48, the narrowest margin in a century. Before his appointment he chaired the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and served briefly on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and since Antonin Scalias death he has been regarded as the Courts foremost originalist and its most conservative justice, authoring majority opinions in cases such as New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.