Thomas: Confirmation battles all about abortion

By Tom Strode - Nov 30, 2005

Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas recently told University of Alabama law students his volatile confirmation process and the battles over other federal court nominees focus on a single issue—abortion.

“I think we all should be honest with one another that the only issue, the central issue in all of this, is abortion,” Thomas said, according to the Associated Press. “It’s not the other things that people throw out. The whole judiciary now is being held, in a sense, hostage to that one issue.”

It appears abortion indeed will be the focus in the battle over new high court nominee Samuel Alito. Thomas’ Nov. 11 comments in Tuscaloosa, Ala., were made only three days before The Washington Times reported Alito wrote in a 1985 application for a Department of Justice position “the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion.” The revelation set off a new round of questioning or criticism by pro-choice senators and abortion rights advocates. Confirmation hearings on Alito are scheduled to begin Jan. 9.

Thomas said some of his former clerks and other lawyers frequently say they are uninterested in being federal judges because of their dread of possible confirmation fights. “I think that’s a problem when the stars are beginning to say, ‘Thank you, but no thanks,’” said Thomas, who was confirmed by only a 52-48 Senate vote in 1991.

The current system of seeking to investigate every part of a nominee’s life should be changed, Thomas said. He has yet to meet a judge who seeks to impose his own agenda through rulings, Thomas told the students.

“The whole process of trying to ferret out the personal agenda through the confirmation process isn’t an endeavor that I think is worth the price we are paying,” he said. “I think the only thing it does is rats out the agenda of the people asking the questions.”

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