Thomas, Clarence (1948– )

US Supreme Court associate justice from 1991. Nominated by President George H W Bush, he became the second African-American to serve on the US Supreme Court, succeeding Thurgood Marshall, and is known for his conservative, often dissenting court opinions.

His nomination by the Senate was only confirmed by 52 votes to 48, in what was the narrowest margin for any nominee to the Supreme Court in the 20th century. Thomas had faced accusations of sexual harassment by former colleague Anita Hill and was not supported by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which would normally back a black nominee. It was widely believed that his Republican views and opposition to abortion, rather than his legal experience, led to his nomination to the Supreme Court. He wrote long opinions supporting the reversals of the legalized abortion decision in Roe v Wade and the desegregation decision in Brown v Board of Education of Topeka.

Born in Savannah, Georgia, he studied at Yale University Law School. President Ronald Reagan appointed him head of the civil-rights division of the department of education in 1981 and he chaired the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission 1982–90. In 1990 President Bush appointed him a justice on the US Court of Appeals. He published My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir in 2007.