The conservative Republican jurist took aim at U.S. News & World Report's annual list, arguing that it amounts to discrimination. From The Wall Street Journal: "During a chat at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law,
Justice Thomas compared the bias against lower-tiered schools to
discrimination against women and minorities, the Associated Press reported. He said he believes the individual is what’s important, not the school that issued the degree. 'Isn’t that the antithesis of what this country is supposed to be
about? Isn’t that the bias that we fought about on racial terms, or on
terms of sex, or on terms of religion, etc.?' Justice Thomas said. 'My
new bias — which I now embrace — is that I don’t eliminate the Ivies in
hiring, but I intentionally prefer kids from regular backgrounds and
regular students.'"
More from the Yale Law School grad: "Justice Thomas talked about his recent clerks who came from schools
like Rutgers, George Mason, George Washington and Creighton, and said
they educated him about terms like 'third-tier trash,' a derogatory
reference to the schools they’d attended. 'I think the obsession [with rankings] is somewhat perverse. I never
look at those rankings. I don’t even know where they are,' Justice
Thomas said. 'I thought U.S. News and World Report was out of business.'"
Booker Rising response: A Harvard student can't be from a "regular background"? Better tell that to Michelle Obama, who hails from a middle-class background (not working-class, as she claims) here in Chicago and attended public schools prior to attending Harvard.
Justice Clarence Thomas Criticizes Law School Rankings
