Clarence Thomas: The Most Important Supreme Court Cases

Clarence Thomas was born on June 23, 1948, in Pin Point, Georgia. His father left his family when he was young. That, and other issues as the years passed led his family into money problems. Clarence and his brother were sent to live with their grandfather and step-grandmother. His grandfather had a major influence on his religious beliefs. He transferred to St. John Vianney Minor Seminary while in high school and graduated from there in 1967. After the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. he heard some of his classmates at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Missouri making fun of his death. This led him to quit seminary and eventually attend Yale University Law School. After graduating from Yale, he worked for many years as a lawyer for the agricultural giant Monsanto. Then he moved to Washington D.C. where he worked some for President Ronald Reagan. In 1991 Thomas replaced the previous Supreme Court Justice and became the second African American justice to serve on the Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas was a part of many important Supreme Court Cases. A few of them include Morse v. Frederick, United States v. Morrison, and Grutter v. Bollinger.

Morse v. Frederick was a case that dealt with a student (Frederick) at a High School event was holding up a banner that said

Morrison is a case that deals with Christy Brzonkala being sexually assaulted. She went to Virginia Tech and right after she started classes she was being sexually assaulted by two football players (Morrison & Crawford). After this happened she was having emotional problems and later dropped out of school. She eventually sued the football players and said that they violated the Violence Against Women act of 1994. Morrison and Crawford were dismissing the suit and the District Court found that Congress did not have the power to enact the Violence against Women Act. Thomas agreed with the majority that Congress did not have the power to declare a policy because of the Commerce