I had never met Justice Clarence Thomas. The occasion for our meeting was a private ceremony at the United States Supreme Court last year. The ceremony honored a scholar of law and leader in his profession, who happened to be a friend of mine. There were perhaps eight in his office. We stayed for nearly an hour, after which he met with a room of young scholars. That day, I got a shock. To me, having been a U.S. Court of Appeals clerk for a Reagan appointee and admirer of Justice Scalia, I imagined -- I am not sure what I imagined. My preconceptions of Justice Thomas gave me to think he was humble and self-effacing, but naturally a man of few words. Every indication from the bench reaffirmed this. While Justice Scalia regularly demonstrated his saber wit, infinite and ironic humor, knack for incisive questions, and indefinite recall of legal precedent, my expectations of Justice Thomas were different.  Too well, I recalled the extraordinary unfairness visited on him...(Read Full Article)