By Steven B. Lichtman. 114 Penn St. L. Rev. 415.
As arguably the most ferocious conservative on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas is not usually associated with civil liberties causes, except insofar as popular myth portrays him as hostile to those causes. Contrary to this mythology, however, Thomas has carved out a definitively speech-protective path in his First Amendment opinions. While there have been some notable exceptions, it can be argued that Clarence Thomas is the most pronounced free speech absolutist on the Supreme Court since Hugo Black, who famously (if somewhat apocryphally) believed that “no law means no law” when it comes to the First Amendment . . . [keep reading]