California Bar Journal
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 1998
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California Bar Journal

The State Bar of California


REGULARS

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Front Page - September 1998
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News
Need info about bar members? Look on the net
Western State law school wins provisional approval for ABA accreditation
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You Need to Know
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From the President - A privilege gone awry
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Opinion
In defense of opinion
Thomas can think as he chooses
Time to drain the 'BOG'
Let's build a stronger forum
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Letters to the Editor
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Trials Digest
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Legal Tech - 10 reasons to ignore 2000 problem
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New Products & Services
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Law Practice - When mediating, let your imagination run loose
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MCLE Self-Study
The Internet and Global Implications
Self-Assessment Test
MCLE Calendar of Events
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Discipline
Ethics Byte - 'He said, she said' rule for sex
Attorney disbarred after investing client's assets
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Annual Meeting
Did you know these Monterey Peninsula facts?
Scenic, legal visions on the menu
Four vie to lead embattled State Bar
11 seek five seats on bar board
District 2: Three-way race in capital and environs
District 4: Unopposed in San Francisco, Albers is ready
District 7, Office 1: 3 seek southern seat...
District 7, Office 2: ...and also in Los Angeles...
District 3: Two-way race develops in South, East Bay region

OPINION

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In defense of opinion
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By CLARENCE THOMAS
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Editor's Note: In a speech before the National Bar Association in Memphis in July, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said he will not succumb to pressure to alter his conservative legal views, even if it means being branded a traitor to his race. The following is excerpted from his address.

As has become the custom, a wearisome one I must admit, this invitation has not been without controversy. There now seems to be a broad acceptance of the racial divide as a permanent state. As we once celebrated those things that we had in common with our fellow citizens who do not share our race, so many now are triumphal about our differences . . . Indeed, some go as far as to all but define each of us by our race and establish the range of our thinking and our opinions, if not our deeds, by our color . . .

I, for one, see this in much the same way I saw our denial of rights as nothing short of our denial of humanity. . .

It has struck me as odd that some think that there are cliques and cabals at the court. No such arrangement exists . . . With respect to my following, or more accurately being led by, other members of the court--that is silly, but expected, because I couldn't possibly think for myself.

What else could possibly be the explanation when I fail to follow an ideological and intellectual, if not anti-intellectual, prescription assigned to blacks? Since thinking beyond this prescription is presumptively beyond my ability, obviously somebody must be putting strange ideas into my mind and my opinions. The stench of racial inferiority still confounds my olfactory nerves

. . . I, for one, have been singled out for particularly bilious and venomous assaults. I have no right to think the way I do because I'm black . . .

Having had to accept my blackness in a cauldron as a youth . . . I had few racial identity problems. I knew who I was and needed no gimmicks to affirm my identity. Nor, might I add, do I need anyone telling me who I am today . . .

Despite some of the nonsense that has been said about me by those who should know better . . . I am a man, a black man, an American . . .

It pains me deeply, more deeply than any of you can imagine, to be perceived by so many members of my race as doing them harm. All the sacrifice, all the long hours of studying, were to help, not to hurt.

I have come here today . . . to assert my right to think for myself, to refuse to have my ideas assigned to me as though I was an intellectual slave because I'm black.

I come to state that I am a man, free to think for myself and do as I please. I'm a judge not consigned to assert the opinions of others . . .

But even more than that, I've come to say: Isn't it time to move on? Isn't it time to realize that being angry with me solves no problems? Isn't it time to acknowledge that the problems of race have defied simple solutions, and not one of us--not a single one of us--can lay claim to the solution?

Isn't it time that we respect ourselves and each other as we have demanded respect from others? Isn't it time to ignore those whose sole occupation is sowing seeds of discord and animus that is self-hatred? I believe that the time has come today.

Clarence Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court by President George Bush in 1991.