Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas heads to his home state of Georgia next week to help dedicate a new courthouse, but not everyone there is eager to see him.
News stories in Augusta here and here report that several local officials and lawyers are upset that Thomas will be the guest speaker May 18 at the opening of a court building named for John Ruffin Jr., a local civil rights lawyer who became the first black judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals. Ruffin died in 2010.
“It’s not [Thomas’] fault, but his judicial philosophy is the antonym of what Judge Ruffin’s was and what it is in the vast majority of the minority community,” Richmond County State Court Judge David Watkins was quoted as saying. A close friend of Ruffin also said, “I know of no way we could dishonor John Ruffin more than to have Clarence Thomas speak for this occasion.”
Ken Foskett, author of a 2004 biography of Thomas and now opinions editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said the controversy “really speaks to the local politics of Augusta,” a city that he describes as “very racially charged.”
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