Let's Make Clarence Thomas's Worst Nightmare Come True

Nell Scovell, Vanity

Minutes after NPR reported that Justice David Souter plans to step down from the Supreme Court, New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof updated his Facebook status to ponder a replacement: “I think Obama just might appoint Elena Kagan, his new solicitor-general and the former Harvard Law School dean. She’s young, smart, understands politics as well as law. Who would you like to see him appoint?”

Thanks for asking, Nick. I’d like to see President Obama appoint Brandeis University law professor Anita Hill. She’s reasonably young, smart, and—after her ordeal testifying at Clarence Thomas’s 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing—she certainly understands politics as well as law.

I’ll never forget Hill’s …

     thoughtful answers as Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) tried to pick apart her testimony, failing to grasp the most rudimentary aspects of sexual harassment in the workplace. He challenged Hill’s every statement, every motive. Why didn’t she quit her job? Why didn’t she tell someone? Calmly, Hill tried to explain something Specter has never endured—power politics from the unempowered side. I was screaming at my television set, but she never raised her voice and never showed her anger.

In contrast, Thomas spewed ad hominem attacks when he took the mic. “This is a circus. It’s a national disgrace,” he barked at the Judiciary Committee. “And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.”

Race card well played, Justice Thomas. He was confirmed by the narrowest margin ever: 52–48.

Last night was not the first time I fantasized about Anita Hill getting the nod for the Supreme Court. It occurred to me back in early December, when I was still giddy from Obama’s victory. In a burst of brazenness, I wrote to Professor Hill and asked if she had considered the notion. She answered me with a charming note, dated December 5, 2008, which she told me I could quote. It said:

Dear Ms. Scovell:

My mother would have warned me against answering your e-mail and participating in the kind of “devilment” you are up to. Last month I was speaking in Maine and was asked about being appointed to the Court. I responded, “That would be awkward, don’t you think?” After all, there ought to be some level of civility, if not camaraderie, among The Nine. I’m very excited about Barack Obama’s presidency and its potential for healing, but I don’t think this is one that he can, or should try to, pull off.

Not that you asked, but high on my list of people Obama ought to consider for the Supreme Court are Dean Harold Koh of Yale Law School (international law specialist) and Lani Guinier at Harvard. (She never had her chance to prove herself before the Judiciary Committee.) I’d also like for him to go outside the Northeast corridor and Ivy League Schools for someone who has been on a state supreme court deciding significant social/economic issues.

Best,
Anita Hill

Even if she doesn’t want it, I still think she’d be great. To use her phrase, there’s such “potential for healing.” I want the still ranking member of the Judiciary Committee Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) to finally treat Hill with the respect she deserves. I want Hill confirmed with more votes than Thomas. And, mostly, I want Hill to counter Thomas’s continued assaults on personal freedoms and equality.

At an Ohio townhall in March 2008, then-candidate Obama was asked if he’d appoint a woman to the Supreme Court. At first, he stepped back to describe what he’d be looking for in general. “I want my judges to understand that part of the role of the Court is to look out for people who don’t have political power, the people who are on the outside, the people who aren’t represented, the people who don’t have a lot of money, who don’t have connections. That’s the role of the Court,” Obama said. “And, yes, I want a woman on the Court. Absolutely,” he added.

Sounds like Anita Hill to me.