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The Glenn Show

Ilya Shapiro, Robert George & Randall Kennedy – Clarence Thomas: Black American Icon

The Glenn Show

Glenn Loury

Politics, Society & Culture, News

4.82.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2024

⏱️ 69 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Preorder Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative wherever you buy your books.

If you missed Wednesday’s City Journal and Manhattan Institute-hosted livestream, I’ve got you covered. Today I’m releasing the recording of that livestream as a special bonus episode. This event marked the publication of my City Journal essay “Clarence Thomas and Me,” and I had a stellar line-up alongside me to discuss the essay and the work of Clarence Thomas: Ilya Shapiro of the Manhattan Institute, Robert George of Princeton, and Randall Kennedy of Harvard Law School.

0:00 Introductions

2:58 Why Glenn wrote “Clarence Thomas and Me”

5:27 Randall: “Justice Thomas trades on his blackness”

10:58 Glenn: Clarence Thomas has not “betrayed black people”

12:30 Thomas’s engagement with natural law jurisprudence

19:29 How would Thomas have come down on Brown v. Board of Education?

20:55 The loyalty trap

24:20 Randall: Thomas’s originalism may also commit him to sanctioning segregation

28:24 Robbie: There are originalist interpretations that support Brown v. Board of Education

34:07 Thomas’s race cases

36:03 Glenn: Thomas can act as both a principled jurist and as an advocate for the rights of African Americans

40:56 Randall: In 100 years, people will regard Shelby County v. Holder as one of the worst decisions in the Court’s history

44:36 Maintaining integrity under pressure

51:22 What are the differences between Thomas’s, Scalia’s, and Alito’s originalisms?

55:30 Will Thomas have broader popularity in the future?

1:01:10 Is racial solidarity inconsistent with judicial impartiality?

1:03:30 Closing remarks

Recorded January 17, 2024

Links and Readings

Glenn’s City Journal essay, “Clarence Thomas and Me”

Glenn’s book, One by One from the Inside Out : Essays and Reviews on Race and Responsibility in America

Michael McConnell’s article, “The Originalist Case for Brown v. Board of Education

Randy Barnett and Evan Bernick’s book, The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit

Lon Fuller’s book, The Morality of Law

The documentary on Clarence Thomas, Created Equal



This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit glennloury.substack.com/subscribe

Transcript

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0:00.0

The Glenn Show is brought to you by the Manhattan Institute.

0:07.0

Please consider becoming a paid subscriber at Glen Lowry.

0:11.0

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0:16.3

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0:21.9

live events, monthly Q&A's with Glenn Lowry and John

0:25.4

Mcwater and other benefits. Your contribution will also help to fund grassroots

0:31.3

initiatives that empower Black development across the country as we donate 10% of our profits to the Woodson Center.

0:39.0

Thank you.

0:40.0

Good evening. My name is I'm I'm I'm a senior fellow and director of

0:47.0

constitutional studies here at the Manhattan Institute and boy are you in

0:52.2

for a treat tonight. I look forward to watching this

0:55.6

panel as much as all of you I'm sure so let's get to it. I will quickly

0:59.8

introduce the panelists and the author of the article in City Journal,

1:06.9

captivating article by Glenn Lowry called Clarence Thomas and me.

1:12.3

So Glenn Lowry, the author, is the Merton P Stoltz, Professor of Economics at Brown University and a Paulson fellow here at

1:20.0

M. I. He has earned distinctions like being a distinguished fellow of the American Economics Association,

1:26.1

a member of the American Philosophical Society, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and

1:31.0

Sciences. He really does it all. And additionally he's the host of the popular

1:34.8

podcast, The Glenn Show. After Glenn will be Randall Kennedy, who's the Michael R. Klein professor at Harvard Law School,

1:44.0

a legal scholar, former clerk to Justice Thurgen Marshall,

1:48.0

received the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award

1:51.0

for his work in Race, Crime, and the Law, and has authored several other books.

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