Carrie Severino, woman who actually clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, took to Twitter last night to tell an amazing story about him that I think you’ll all appreciate:
When I applied to clerk for Justice Thomas I was just finishing my appellate clerkship on the DC Circuit with Judge Sentelle. I was thrilled to get an interview, but nervous about broaching the fact that I was three months pregnant. /1 #CTLive
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) May 28, 2021
Would he not want to hire someone who was getting ready to have a baby? After getting advice from people who knew him I decided to just tell him in my interview (I wasn’t showing yet). His response was so illustrative of his character. /2 #CTLive
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) May 28, 2021
He told me that one of the perks of being a Supreme Court justice is that he could hire anyone he wanted for whatever year he wanted. /3 #CTLive
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) May 28, 2021
He said the whole purpose of the Court and the Constitution was to create a country that allowed its citizens to go about raising their families in peace and so it would be backwards for him to ask me to do anything for him that wasn’t also best fit for my family. /4 #CTLive
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) May 28, 2021
He told me to go home and talk to my family and friends and decide which year would be best to clerk for my situation. I opted to wait a year after I normally would have started so that my daughter was 18 months to 2.5 years during my clerkship instead of an infant. /5 #CTLive
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) May 28, 2021
The kindness shown by Thomas was truly amazing, especially considering there are many people applying to clerk for these justices and they can probably be as selective as they want. He choose to hire her when she and her family was ready.
But to me, this is even more amazing:
Ironically, because of offering me that deferral, Justice Thomas ended up with four male clerks the term I otherwise would have started. He was criticized for not having any women. Meanwhile he was doing the most pro-woman thing I could imagine. /6 #CTLive
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) May 28, 2021
Justice Thomas did the right thing for this woman despite the criticism he undoubtedly knew he would get. And, as you might know, the criticism was entirely wrong as she points out.
While we’re on the subject of Clarence Thomas, here’s a clip that was going around yesterday on Twitter. It’s not new by any stretch and was filmed around 2016. But clearly Thomas seems like the kind of guy who would be great at parties:
LOL. Clarence Thomas laughs at a TMZ reporter. A national treasure. pic.twitter.com/CjQEx44c9e
— Tim Swain (@SwainForSenate) May 28, 2021