they were all to find out he thinks about clarence thomas. i'm in the crowd of reporters are all finding a gazillion different ways to ask the same question. the best answer came from thurgood marshall the very first time he was asked what he thought of the popular clarence thomas, then appointed to the supreme court. marshall would come in the room, moving very slowly, short of breath, and sat there wheezing listening to the questions and all this when he was asked about plans thomas. he says, old man told me that it makes a difference whether you got a white snake or a black snake. they both a bite. that was his answer. thank you. i mean, that was the way he was answering questions all the way around it and finally this is kind of all law and i said, mr. justice, how do you want to be remembered? the looked up at me across the crowd and said, well, let me read this to you. that was my lead. how do you want to be rupert, i asked supreme court justice thurgood marshall, holding my question over the heads of reporters at his farewell press con

and at the same time we knew waiting in the wings was a young african-american judge named clarence thomas. that was the big story at the time. and inc had just gotten into ton to say, thurgood marshall news conference. one thing about a reporter is, if you've got some latitude, especially columnist, make your own assignments you get to meet people you always admired from afar. i always admired thurgood marshall on number of levels and this man is walking history. anyway i jumped in a cab and went over there. i'm youngest journalist in thete room. this i.s the city of bright youh things in journalism.j young folks that come out of j schools and various internships and all up, what my buddy henry allen, retired "washington post" reporter, described years ago as the young fogies of washington. they are so serious and eager to get the big story and all theirt assignment deskses had told them, find out what he thinks about clarence thomas. i'm there in the crowd and reporters are finding a zillion different ways to ask the same question. the best answer came from thurgood marshall the very fir

with a favorite story about irving crystal who is one of my favorites and he was watching the clarence thomas conformation hearing in his office and at one point when specter did his thing, the judge turned off the tv and said the end of western civilization and irving took a long drag and said of course it is the end of american civilization but that doesn't mean one can't live well. so i will turn it over to jonathan last who is the editor of this wonderful book and will mc the event and if he with lucky he will explain why owen wilson is on the cover of this book. thank you all very much. >> thank you. thank you first to the publisher of templeton press. writing is hard and not a lot of fun as one of our con tributoco will tell you. i am never write a normal book then. this is the way to do it. you get others to write and then at the end you sit back and say look at the book i wrote. and thanks for jonah for making this happen and your contribution to the book which is one of my favorite books. as long puts it virtues are written about the same way he does with star trek with elgence, wit

no justice is as fearless as justice clarence thomas. appointed to the court in 19 91 at the age of 43, he has been called the court's intellectual conservative path breaker. he has passionately defended his convictions even when few agreed until gradually, and in no small part due to the force of his reasoning, his views have made their way into the legal mainstream. he has been compared to john marshall harland. someone else has suggested that he has been compared to john marshall harland. someone else has suggested that he should be counted alongside holmes and marshall as a visionary. court watching is always a tricky business and no one has made that clearer than our second nominee, samuel alito who, in his prize-winning note analyze the behind the scenes negotiations in the early clause cases like maccallum. in that note, he catalogued, and i am quoting him, "a long list of outwardly plausible but that they mistaken interpretations that -- badly mistaken interpretations that resulted from attempts to discern." he understood that ou

. >> the majority opinion written by justice clarence thomas found that even though connick's officece in the thompson case, that was not enough to prove a pattern. and yet a study done in 2008 reported that during harry connick sr.'s tenure in one out of every four cases where the death penalty was imposed, evidence was withheld. >> that was crazy. if that is not a pattern, i don't know what is. so who is going to get the last laugh, jim williams? >> in the photo of jim williams with the electric chair of the five faces visible, all of them were released from death row. >> in my mind, we should charge them with attempted murder, this district attorney using false information that he know is false to kill you. it's premeditated. so we're saying he can get away with murder? what makes him so special? the only thing he was hiding behind, a district attorney badge. >> unfortunately, the thomas opinion is the law of the land and it gives me great concern. >> make no bones about it, prosecutors are now a lot less accountable for what they do, because they know that if they don't produce e

and as a consequence, we supported clarence thomas.vative justice, and were not able to talk about these issues. so i think this is a new day. a lot of african american men and women are saying, we're not going to. >>a bide by that politic anymore. >> professor, you've written in the nation about the disparity between black women and white women who are raped and what their experiences are. and if the race of the victimizer is black or white, it makes a difference. tell us about that and why it might be the context for blek women's hesitation to even come out. >> well, one of the pushbacks against the cosby allegations particularly from members of african american community have been that the women who have come forward are disproportionately white. so they're casting it as a african american male rapist and a white victim. using that to protect or come around or put solidarity with cosby. so if you look statistically, it's true that white women are more likely to come forward if the perpetrator of sexual violence is african american t

there was clarence thomas, anita hill. remember that whole thing? >> seth: right. be on tv. i don't know if i could -- they talked a lot about pubic hairs -- >> seth: yeah, they did. >> on a can of soda. and 20 million people watched to hear about pubic hair and 77 came to my film. not so good. [ laughter ] >> seth: no. >> but it wasn't nathan lane's fault. >> seth: no, it wasn't nathan lane's fault. >> it was just luck. and then we thought, get him back when we sell the dvd. and of course my luck, when the dvd came out was the big night weekend of l.a. riot. >> seth: oh, no. >> and i was at the laker game and they burned my car. and i had to hitchhike home, you know. it's hard. "hi, i do 'happy days,' right." [ laughter ] nobody cares. >> seth: nobody cares. >> "happy days" this, you know. >> seth: right. one of the things i love talking about when we got to work together is when you write, you're a writer and i was a writer. you sometimes actors want to know more than as an writer you even know. and you told me a great story of working with tony randall on "the o

clarence page? guest: this is a problem especially brought up on the left. -- book which came out thomas frank's, yes. university of chicago graduate. i was fascinated by this. think we forget -- you are in conservative, you tend to view the view through an economic plans. all our social problems can be solved if we just take care of the economics. not everybody lives by those economic values. have shared values -- conservative religious values it is somehow m fundamentally immoral to take anything from the government. that private charities fund government charities, somehow. these are values that people have. to hold those ght values and express them. have aa profound effect on our politics because you get people who are directly helped by social service programs. just take social security, medicare, medicaid. those are the biggest expense the budget, and yet if you ask people what the biggest expenses are, they're going to say foreign aid. which is just 1%. but there are these perceptions people have that shape the values. this is most and people voting in south economic interests because they fee

thomas jefferson. so that's one thing i wanted to mention. figure who i think is heroic work.id and yet his personal life was extraordinary. a fellow called clarence king. great one of the four geological survey explorers in '70s. slightly the four of a dull man named wheeler who surveyed nebraska and the plains.n hayden who discovered and mapped yellow stone. wesley powell who you will know had his arm shot off in the battle of shiloh. visibility, managed to get all the way down the grand canyon and mapped it and explored it. them, i think incidentally hayden and powell in their pinning graves if they had seen what was for some n washington trivial reason in congress the national parks they discovered be shut down. but the fourth man is called king.nce he's an absolutely fascinating character. educated, highly loquacious, amusing. a m newport, rhode island, classic american wasp from a very good wasp family. he went to -- he went -- to a phd. at harvard. at the age of 27, all of the sacramento and the west in the east and 100 miles north. the 40th parallel survey. took in seven years. he books, the maps, the reports, it costs hundreds of thousand

thomas jefferson. so that is one thing i want to mention. another figure who i think is , andtten, did heroic work yet his personal life was quite extraordinary. a fellow called clarenceking. he was one of the four great explores ofurvey the 1860's and 1870's. man calleddull wheeler survey most of nebraska and the northern plains. then there was hayden who discovered and matt yellowstone. ,here was john wesley powell who had his arm shot off at the battle of shiloh. he managed to get all the way down the grand canyon and mapped it. they would bem, spinning in their graves if they had seen what was going on in washington some while ago when for trivial reasons and arguments in congress the national parks essentially had to be shut down. there is the fourth man, clarence came -- clarence king. fascinating character. diminutive, highly educated. , am newport rhode island classic american loss. yale, was given charge of a survey of all the land between sacramento and the west of the cheyenne, a hundred miles to the north and south, the 40 parallel. it took him seven years. cost hundredsmaps of thousands of dollars today if you can get them. they are beautifully accomplish