Posted on 11/29/2011 12:45:33 PM PST by SeekAndFind
GROVE CITY — Grove City College was graced with an all-day visit on Tuesday from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
"He was full of vitality and energy," professor John Sparks said of the 63-year-old Thomas, who spoke to Sparks' Constitution History class, as well as a Founders' History class taught by professor Craig Columbus.
"This is a very humble, down-to-earth man who hasn't forgotten where he came from," said Paul Kengor, political science professor and director of The Center for Vision & Values at GCC.
Thomas also spoke with the student council and to faculty at a luncheon. On his own time, he dined and mingled with students for hours at the student union, Kengor noted.
"Oftentimes, high-profile speakers like this are so busy that they fly in and fly out," he said. "This is someone who insisted on spending as much time as possible with everybody, particularly the students."
Tuesday evening, Thomas spoke before a packed audience at Crawford Hall for the college's annual J. Howard Pew Memorial Lecture Series. The college notified media of the visit the next day.
The lecture was a discussion between Thomas and Hon. Alice Batchelder, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The GCC trustee is a long-time friend of Thomas and was instrumental in bringing him to the school.
Sparks' class has many pre-law students. "Typically in the student's lifetime, or anybody's lifetime, to ask questions of a Supreme Court judge is very rare," he said. "It was a real treat."
The students asked Thomas about law careers, as well as opinions he has written on cases that have come before the Supreme Court --some of which are in their textbook. Sparks also gave his students 10 published opinions by Thomas which aren't in the book for them to discuss with him.
Thomas, considered by many to be an authority on the Constitution, believes that "injecting his personal views should be avoided," in deciding cases, Sparks said. The justice said he enjoyed working with the other justices, although their philosophies differ at times, Sparks added.
Although he answered questions about closed cases, Thomas wouldn't comment on current ones. Students were curious about litigation against President Obama's healthcare program, which mandates citizen participation. The case will probably be decided before the 2012 election, Sparks said.
If found unconstitutional, "It'll be a serious blow to him (in the election)," he noted, but Thomas would make no comment on the pending case.
Thomas did communicate his desire to shake every student's hand after class, and allowed personal photos that attracted a line about 50 students long, the professor added.
"He was extremely friendly and affable. He's far from what you could imagine with (his public image) being stiff and distant," Sparks noted.
That evening, Thomas spoke of growing up in poverty in Georgia, but given a strong work ethic by his grandfather, who raised him. Before studying law, Thomas first went to seminary to become a Catholic priest.
Batchelder asked Thomas about his infamous confirmation hearing for justice in 1991, which brought testimony from Anita Hill, who formerly worked for Thomas and accused him of sexual harassment.
Thomas denied her claims, and decried the proceedings as "a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves. ... You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree."
He told the GCC audience that it wasn't the most difficult thing he's faced in life, however; it was being raised without a father, in poverty, facing racial discrimination, Sparks said.
"You really saw how basic principles, like faith and family, are the bedrock of the things he's accomplished and how he's persevered and survived," Kengor said.
Virgina Lamp Thomas -- founder of Liberty Central, a conservative lobbying group -- sat in the front row at the lecture to support her husband.
"It was really a lot of fun and remarkable how he kept looking over to her all the time," Kengor said. "You really could see the love and respect he and his wife had for each other.
"I can honestly say it was one of the most memorable nights we ever had here at Grove City. It was special."
Thomas' visit was a loosely kept secret, announced by GCC President Dick Jewell last February at the annual Ronald Reagan Lecture, and reported in the Nov. 11 Collegian, the campus newspaper.
"We would have loved to promote his visit," said Randy Cole, assistant director of marketing and communication, but keeping it closed was decided by college leaders and Thomas' personnel.
"The lecture is for the benefit of the student body," Cole explained, and the 1,000 seats at Crawford filled up quickly. A few outsiders heard about the Thomas/Batchelder discussion, and "we certainly made room for them," he added.
In the nation's 235-year history, "There have only been a little over 100 Supreme Court justices," Kengor said. "It's rare for any college to be honored by hosting somebody of this caliber."
Former First Lady Laura Bush spoke during GCC's May commencement; and William Bennett, former secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, spoke at the Reagan Lecture in February.
"These folks are willing to come here; in fact, eager to come here," Kengor said. "It's a reflection of the respect of Grove City College at the national level."
Kengor is an occasional guest on Quinn & Rose {a Pittsburgh AM talk show with some syndication} and he is really a conservative guy at a conservative college.
I wish I had known about Justice Thomas being in at Grove as I'd have been there {guess that's why they kept it quiet, keep out the riff raff}.
MY daughter ( a student at GCC ) wanted to listen to Justice Thomas’s lecture at their auditorium. She arrived a late and could not find a seat. The place was jampacked.
Wish I would have know too. It’s just down the road from me.
My nephew is at GCC. If he wasn’t wrapping up a semester of study in Europe he probably would have tried to attend.
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