document: -- `` I believe that society is now in a position to vigorously enforce equal rights for all Americans ... . But I believe in compensation for actual victims , not for people whose only claim to victimization is that they are members of a historically oppressed group . '' -- `` America should not fall into the trap of blaming all the problems faced by blacks or other minorities on others . We are not beggars or objects of charity . We do n't get smarter just because we sit next to white people in class , and we do n't progress just because society is ready with handouts . As a people , we need to find solutions to problems through independence , perseverance and integrity . As a society , we should develop better policies to deal with the underclass than the failed solutions of the past . '' While the views of President Bush 's first Supreme Court nominee , David Souter , were virtually unknown before his confirmation , the 43-year-old Mr. Thomas has boldly articulated his vision of constitutional law , both as a judge -- he now sits on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit , the nation 's second-highest bench -- and , before that , as chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for eight years . `` Basically the job of a judge is to figure out what the law says , not what he wants it to say , '' Mr. Thomas told me . `` There is a difference between the role of a judge and that of a policy maker . -LCB- Judge Robert -RCB- Bork was right about that , no question . Judging requires a certain impartiality . '' At the same time , `` impartiality is not the same thing as indifference . This is n't law school speculation . When I hear a case , I know damn well that something is going to happen as a result of what I decide . People 's lives are affected . Sometimes a man 's life depends on the outcome . And these are people looking to me , to the judge , to figure out what 's just , to correctly apply the law . That 's not a responsibility I take lightly . No way . '' Many of Mr. Thomas 's critics have taken his unconcealed admiration for Ronald Reagan , his former boss , and Robert Bork , his predecessor on the D.C. Circuit , as evidence that Mr. Thomas shares their philosophy of jurisprudence . But in fact , a careful reading of his articles and speeches reveals a different sort of judicial conservatism . Writing in the Howard Law Journal in 1987 , Mr. Thomas argued for what he called a `` natural law '' or `` higher law '' mode of judging , in which the judge examines not only the text of the Constitution or statute but also the moral principles underlying the American form of government . Mr. Thomas maintains , with support from Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass , that the Constitution must be read in the context of the principle of equality inherent in the Declaration of Independence . In a powerful speech Mr. Thomas gave on Martin Luther King Day three years ago , he defended certain forms of civil disobedience . King often quoted Thomas Aquinas 's statement , `` An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law . '' Part of King 's legacy , for Mr. Thomas , is his reflection on the close connection between law and morality . President Bush 's nominee understands the hostility he is likely to face in Congress . `` When you 're up before those confirmation hearings , it 's like going through Dante 's Inferno ... . I 've seen a glimpse of that process . When you get up there , you just hope that you do n't get destroyed so that even if you do n't make it , you can go on with your life . '' Mr. Thomas is likely to be a very different kind of judge from the man he is replacing . When reminded of Thurgood Marshall 's comment that he could not wholeheartedly celebrate the bicentennial of the American founding because the Constitution permitted slavery , Mr. Thomas shook his head . `` I have felt the pain of racism as much as anyone else , '' Mr. Thomas says passionately . `` Yet I am wild about the Constitution and about the Declaration . Abraham Lincoln once said that the American founders declared the right of equality whose enforcement would follow as soon as circumstances permitted . The more I learn about the ideals of those men , the more enthusiastic I get ... . I believe in the American proposition , the American dream , because I 've seen it in my own life . '' Mr. Thomas 's life is a remarkable story . Born in a small frame house on the outskirts of Savannah , Ga. , in 1948 , Mr. Thomas endured all the hardships of the segregated South . His father left before he could walk , and his mother worked as a housemaid and picked crabs from the marsh to eat and sell . The family shared a single outhouse with several neighbors . In the summer of 1955 , Clarence Thomas and his brother went to live with their maternal grandparents , who owned an ice delivery and fuel oil business . It is here , under the stern tutelage of his grandfather , Myers Anderson , that Mr. Thomas locates the beginning of his true education . `` My grandfather has been the greatest single influence on my life , '' he claims . In 1987 he told the Atlantic , `` When the civil rights people indict me , the man they are indicting is that man . Let them call him from the grave and indict him . '' As Mr. Thomas remembers , his grandfather believed that `` Man ai n't got no business on relief as long as he can work . Damn welfare , that relief -RSB- '' At home the Thomas boys worked six hours a day in addition to school : raising the chickens , pigs and cows ; cleaning the house and the yard ; painting , roofing , plumbing and fixing ; maintaining the oil trucks and making deliveries . These lessons of hard work , personal dignity and self-sufficiency were reinforced through years of Catholic school and college . He finished his undergraduate studies at Holy Cross College in Worcester , Mass. `` That 's where I started to get political and radical , '' Mr. Thomas recalls . `` I read Malcolm X. I became interested in the Black Panthers . '' In 1971 he founded the Black Student Union at Holy Cross . He went on to Yale Law School , where he worked summers at New Haven Legal Assistance , continuing what he calls `` my political consciousness raising . '' Nevertheless , `` I never gave up my grandfather 's ideals , and when my left-wing opinions began to clash with those ideals , I began to move away from the left . '' Eventually he took a job with Missouri Attorney General -LRB- now Senator -RRB- John Danforth because `` he promised to treat me like anyone else . He promised to ignore the hell out of me . '' At a conference of black conservatives in San Francisco , Calif. , Mr. Thomas 's eloquent departures from the civil rights orthodoxy on quotas and government handouts greatly impressed the newly installed Reagan administration , and in 1981 he was nominated to be assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education . The next year he was promoted to the top job of the EEOC . Under the Carter administration , the agency had zealously promoted numerical goals and timetables . `` Thomas came in , and he rejected all that , '' remarks William Robinson , dean of the District of Columbia School of Law . Mr. Thomas had his skirmishes with the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights , an umbrella group instrumental in defeating the Bork nomination , and he made a dangerous enemy in the American Association of Retired Persons , which accused him of letting legal protections for the elderly lapse . When he was nominated to the D.C. Circuit in late 1989 , a number of these special interest groups prepared for a bloodbath . But the storm clouds melted away and Mr. Thomas was approved by the Senate Judiciary with a 12-1 majority . The full Senate seated him with only two senators opposed . The reason for the smooth passage , EEOC vice chairman Ricky Silber man -LRB- whose husband Laurence Silberman sits on the D.C. Circuit with Mr. Thomas and is his closest friend on the bench -RRB- thinks , is that `` Clarence has an amazing ability to neutralize opposition . Just as in his life , he turns negative values into positive values , an amazing feat . '' Can Clarence Thomas be confirmed to the Supreme Court ? Even liberal judges will go on record praising Mr. Thomas . `` If I or a member of my family were in trouble , he is the kind of person I 'd like to appear before , '' Judge Damon Keith , a Carter appointee on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Detroit said in an interview . `` Our judicial philosophy may not be the same , but he is a bright and reflective man who believes passionately in fairness . I say this without reservation , and in full knowledge of all the people who complain about him . '' Dean Robinson added , `` People often confuse what Clarence thinks with what some of his friends on the right think , but Clarence is his own man . '' While at the EEOC , Mr. Thomas gave speeches accusing the Republican Party of `` blatant indifference '' toward black voters , and chastised Ronald Reagan in particular for letting Bob Jones University get away with racial discrimination , and for `` foot dragging '' on the Voting Rights Act extension . Mr. Thomas and his wife Virginia live in Northern Virginia with Jamal , Mr. Thomas 's son from a previous marriage . Some weeks before word of the nomination came , Mr. Thomas confessed to being slightly bemused by all the attention being paid to him by scholars and courtwatchers . `` The problem for my opponents , and for my friends , is that I do n't think I fit any of these molds very well . Once people figure this out , maybe they 'll leave me alone . '' -- Mr. D'Souza , a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute , is the author of `` Illiberal Education : The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus '' -LRB- Free Press/Macmillan , 1991 -RRB- .
extractive_keyphrases: clarence thomas supreme court nominee minorities judge columbia circuit judicial conservatism
abstractive_keyphrases: mr. thomas