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Supreme Court · Associate Justice

Clarence Thomas

Republican appointee: Appointed by George H.W. Bush (R)

Served 1991–present · 34 terms

Confirmed 52–48

Biography

Clarence Thomas is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1991. Nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court and the second longest-serving U.S. Supreme Court justice in history.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Thomas and the 18 justices who overlapped with Thomas, 1991–present

−4−20+2+4199520002005201020152020More conservativeMore liberalThomasAlitoScaliaRehnquistGorsuchKavanaughBarrettKennedyJ. RobertsO'ConnorSouterKaganBreyerK. JacksonStevensGinsburgSotomayor
  • Clarence Thomas
  • 95% credible interval
  • Peer, appointed by a Democrat
  • Peer, appointed by a Republican
  • Court median
How to read this

Martin–Quinn scores place each justice on a single liberal–conservative dimension, estimated from their votes across terms, with scores allowed to shift from one term to the next. Higher is more conservative. The shaded band is the credible interval: wider when the record is thin, especially in a justice’s first terms, and narrower as votes accumulate.

Where Thomas sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+42.743.96

Thomas’s range across terms

Served alongside Thomas

18 justices

Closest career average first. Filled dot: the peer. Ring: Thomas.

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
William Rehnquist1991–2004career average 2.97 versus Thomas at 3.40Antonin Scalia1991–2015career average 2.50 versus Thomas at 3.40Samuel Alito2005–2024career average 2.00 versus Thomas at 3.40Neil Gorsuch2016–2024career average 1.04 versus Thomas at 3.40Sandra O'Connor1991–2005career average 1.02 versus Thomas at 3.40John Roberts2005–2024career average 0.81 versus Thomas at 3.40Amy Barrett2020–2024career average 0.77 versus Thomas at 3.40Anthony Kennedy1991–2017career average 0.68 versus Thomas at 3.40Brett Kavanaugh2018–2024career average 0.56 versus Thomas at 3.40Byron White1991–1992career average 0.44 versus Thomas at 3.40Harry Blackmun1991–1993career average −0.03 versus Thomas at 3.40David Souter1991–2008career average −0.77 versus Thomas at 3.40Stephen Breyer1994–2021career average −1.32 versus Thomas at 3.40Elena Kagan2010–2024career average −1.74 versus Thomas at 3.40Ruth Ginsburg1993–2019career average −1.76 versus Thomas at 3.40John Stevens1991–2009career average −1.81 versus Thomas at 3.40Ketanji Jackson2022–2024career average −2.62 versus Thomas at 3.40Sonia Sotomayor2009–2024career average −3.27 versus Thomas at 3.40

How Thomas voted

Every argued case Thomas took part in, newest first, with how Thomas voted in each: with the majority, in dissent, or in an equally divided Court. A Liberal or Conservative tag is the Supreme Court Database’s coding of who prevailed in the case, not a rating of the justices.

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    Data notes

    The Decisions page’s argued cases with this justice’s vote from the Supreme Court Database. “Majority” includes a concurrence; a vote that dissented in part is coded by the side the justice took overall. Cases the justice sat out and equally divided cases are left out of the percentages. “Wrote” means authored an opinion. Source: Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.).

    Report a correction

    Scores: Martin, Andrew D. and Kevin M. Quinn. 2002. “Dynamic Ideal Point Estimation via Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the U.S. Supreme Court, 1953–1999.” Political Analysis 10:134–153, from mqscores.wustl.edu. Appointment data: Federal Judicial Center biographical directory. Biographies: Wikipedia, text abridged, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Portraits: public-domain images via Wikimedia Commons.