LAPA Seminar with Corey Robin: Invisible Man: The Black Nationalism of Clarence Thomas's Jurisprudence

Date & Time Oct 22 2018 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Speaker(s)
Corey Robin, Brooklyn College, Political Science; CUNY Graduate Center. Commentator: Amna Akbar, LAPA Fellow; Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University
Audience Open to the Public

LAPA encourages attendees to familiarize themselves with the paper in advance. The commentator opens the session by summarizing the main themes in the paper and presenting some topics for discussion.

Copies of the seminar paper are typically available about 10 days before the event, during regular business hours, at the LAPA Offices on the 3rd floor of Wallace Hall.

From Professor Robin: "A little known fact about Clarence Thomas is that during the formative period of his life, from 1968 to 1975, he was a black nationalist on the left. In this paper, I show that despite his right turn in the 1970s, Thomas never gave up his black nationalism. The fundamental ideas he formed about race and racism on the black nationalist left continue to structure his jurisprudence from the right. While that's true of his jurisprudence on issues ranging from the Second Amendment to the Takings Clause, I focus here on his opinions about affirmative action and desegregation, showing that his positions on those questions bear little resemblance to either conventional conservatism or liberalism."

http://lapa.princeton.edu/content/invisible-man-black-nationalism-clarence-thomass-jurisprudence

More information: Contact Judi Rivkin, jrivkin@princeton.edu

Sponsored by the Program in Law and Public Affairs