Clarence Thomas speaks at Hillsdale College
Urges graduates to lead by example, preserve liberty
BY VANESSA McCRAY
BLADE STAFF WRITE
HILLSDALE, Mich. — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas urged Hillsdale College graduates to lead by example and preserve liberty during a commencement speech today at the conservative private school in southern Michigan.
Justice Thomas spoke to an audience of about 5,200 graduates, parents, faculty, and others at the Margot V. Biermann Athletic Center at Hillsdale, where statues of conservative icons such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher dot the campus. Up to 12,000 people tuned into the ceremony at different times through the college’s website, a school spokesman said.
His half-hour speech — bookended by standing ovations — was tinged with sometimes wistful-sounding reminisces of his own upbringing by his grandparents and American’s constitutional history.
Justice Thomas said society is currently focused on the rights of citizens and what they are owed, not of their obligations and duties, and described his remarks of those a “vintage” nature.
“Hallmarks of my youth, such as patriotism and religion seem more like outliers, if not afterthoughts. So in a sense, I feel woefully out of place doing this or any commencement,” he said.
“I admit to being unapologetically Catholic, unapologetically patriotic and unapologetically a Constitutionalist,” he said, to applause.
He praised the independent stance of Hillsdale, which has refused to accept federal funding. He urged graduates to lead by example, to “be a beacon of light for others to follow,” to thank those who sacrificed for them, to be kind to the shy or unpopular, and to be bold in their faith and beliefs “especially in this world that seems to have gone mad with political correctness.”
“Today we rarely hear of our personal responsibilities,” he said. “It is as though freedom and liberty exist wholly independent of anything we do.”
image:
http://www.toledoblade.com/image/2016/05/14/300x_b1_cCM_z/CTY-Hillsdale15-5-14.jpgCommencement speaker Justice Clarence Thomas, left, and William J. Brodbeck, Hillsdale College board of trustees, share a laugh on stage. Commencement speaker Justice Clarence Thomas, left, and William J. Brodbeck, Hillsdale College board of trustees, share a laugh on stage.
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Justice Thomas also paid tribute to the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died this year leaving a vacant seat on the Supreme Court.
“This has been a most difficult term at court. This difficulty is underscored by the sudden and tragic passing of my colleague and friend Antonin Scalia,” he said. “When I think of Justice Scalia I think of the good man whom I could instinctively trust during my first days on the court, and those were challenging days.”
He remembered his kindness, that he was a man of character and of his word.
“Over the almost 25 years we were together, I think, we made the court a better place for each other. I certainly know he made it a better place for me,” Justice Thomas said.
Hillsdale invited the conservative voice on the nation’s sharply divided and highest court to speak to the 353 graduates in its class of 2016.
“This is the largest audience we’ve ever had at commencement, and the reasons for that are obvious — this is the greatest senior class we’ve ever had,” said Hillsdale’s President Larry Arnn, before introducing the justice, whom he described as “the greatest public servant I know.”
Security measures required the school to hold the commencement inside an athletic complex, and the long line of people waiting to get inside delayed the ceremony about 30 minutes. Hillsdale also gave Justice Thomas an honorary doctor of laws degree.
Justice Thomas, 67, was born in Georgia in 1948. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1974 and started his legal career as an assistant attorney general of Missouri.
In 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated him to the Supreme Court seat held by the retiring Thurgood Marshall. His controversial confirmation hearings were marked by accusations he sexually harassed Anita Hill.
Justice Thomas took his seat on the court on Oct. 23, 1991.
Earlier this year, he made headlines when he spoke for the first time in a decade during oral arguments.
He spoke at Hillsdale in 2000, for Mr. Arnn’s presidential inauguration.
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