Justice Clarence Thomas on Thursday became the second-longest-serving justice in U.S. Supreme Court history, surpassing Justice John Paul Stevens after more than 34 years on the bench.
Thomas, 77, has become a powerhouse in the conservative legal movement, with his originalist jurisprudence now shaping the Supreme Court’s working majority.
In recent years, Thomas has cast key votes to overturn Roe v. Wade, end affirmative action, strengthen gun rights, and expand religious liberty protections. In the landmark case weakening the Voting Rights Act, Thomas wrote a concurrence, calling race-based redistricting a “disastrous misadventure.” In total, he’s authored 835 Supreme Court opinions, according to SCOTUSBlog.
Cully Stimson, acting director of the Institute for Constitutional Government at the Heritage Foundation, called Thomas a “giant in the law.”
“The only reason that the left and liberals hate him is because he doesn’t think the way they expect a black person to think, he’s a conservative, and that’s the cardinal sin that he committed,” Stimson told The Daily Wire.
Born in Pin Point, Georgia, and raised in segregated Savannah, Thomas embodies the American Dream in many respects. His documentary, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, details his humble upbringing in poverty and learning the ropes of life from his grandfather.
“He says to us, you’re going to go to school every day, and if you are sick, you’re still going, and if you die, I will take your body for three days to make sure you’re not faking,” Thomas said, recounting memories of his grandfather. “And he meant it. It’s one thing if somebody says it and you think they’re exaggerating — he wasn’t that kind of guy.”
🚨 NOW: SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas is being praised nationwide for EMBODYING the PURE AMERICAN DREAM after becoming the 2nd-longest serving Supreme Court Justice in history
God bless this patriot! 🇺🇸 🙏🏻
“It followed that Catholic schools had to be better than public… pic.twitter.com/wEtyMlTUK9
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) May 6, 2026
With a strong work ethic, Thomas, a devout Roman Catholic, attended Conception Seminary from 1967 to 1968 and graduated from College of the Holy Cross in 1971. He went on to earn a law degree from Yale.
“He came from the bottom of the barrel, literally,” Stimson said. “If his grandparents didn’t raise him, he wouldn’t have made it to 20. If the nuns hadn’t set him straight numerous times, he wouldn’t have made it to college.”
“If he hadn’t gone to Holy Cross and gone through his metamorphosis from an angry, black liberal to a thoughtful, circumspect, devoted constitutionalist, he would have never made it to the court,” Stimson added. “And so this transformation, this miracle, this American dream, embodies his life.”
Thomas’s devout faith, Stimson said, is the root of his belief in the dignity of every human being with inalienable rights bestowed by God.
“He knows the names of every single person in the Supreme Court building, from the janitor to the electrician to the food service preparers to the elevator operators, and he genuinely cares about people. You cannot say that about many of the justices,” he said.
Nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, Thomas faced a bitter and contentious confirmation process that included sexual harassment claims from Anita Hill, who worked at the Department of Education. Thomas denied the accusations.
At a famous Senate Judiciary Committee hearing led by then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), Thomas dropped the hammer.
“This is a circus, it’s a national disgrace,” Thomas asserted. “And from my standpoint, as a black American, as far as I’m concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.”
Congratulations to Justice Thomas for becoming the second-longest-serving Supreme Court justice in American history 🇺🇸
His “high tech” lynching speech to the Senate Judiciary Committee after Democrats tried to smear him with bogus allegations. pic.twitter.com/3eBljWGDw4
— Will DiBugno (@DCLongIslander) May 7, 2026
On Thursday, Republican Congressman Byron Donalds, the frontrunner to be Florida’s next governor, called Thomas “a shining example of the American Dream.”
“We’re talking about a man who overcame the weight of segregation to become one of the most consequential legal minds of our time,” Donalds said on social media. “In his 34+ years of service, he’s been a stalwart figure in the American judicial system, steadfast in his commitment to originalism and preserving the founding principles that built our Republic.”
Today, Justice Clarence Thomas officially became the second-longest-serving Associate Justice in history—a shining example of the American Dream.
We’re talking about a man who overcame the weight of segregation to become one of the most consequential legal minds of our time.
In…
— Byron Donalds (@ByronDonalds) May 7, 2026
In recent years, Thomas has become more publicly vocal, criticizing “progressivism” while warning that “cynicism, rejection, hostility, and animus” are consuming Americans.
“Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence, and hence, our form of government. It holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God, but from government,” Thomas said at the University of Texas. “It requires of the people a subservience and weakness incompatible with a Constitution premised on the transcendent origin of our rights.”
In the viral speech, Thomas slammed elitism in Washington and accused policymakers of being “so swept up in the euphoria of acclamation and acceptance that they put aside their convictions.”
For Thomas, a life seeking praise is devoid of purpose.
“He’s one of the most well-known people in the United States, loathed or loved. And the guy has no ego, none. He drives an old camper van around the summer with Ginni, and likes to eat hot dogs,” Stimson said. “He is keenly aware that he is a child of God, and that he has been blessed beyond anyone’s wildest imagination with being an American.”
If Thomas remains on the court through May 20, 2028, he would become the longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history.
“He cares about his craft, and he deeply cares about the Constitution and trying to get it right in every case. And I think if you focus on that, which is, he focuses intensely on that, everything else takes care of itself,” Stimson said.
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