The news is making the rounds on news outlets and blogs alike -- United State Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has broken his seven year silence. Since assuming the bench, Justice Thomas has remained notably silent at oral arguments. This all changed on Monday, when Justice Thomas broke his silence . . . not by asking a question related to an important issue of law, but to perhaps tell a joke.
The New York Times reported the incident here:
"Justice Thomas leaned into his microphone, and in the midst of a great deal of cross talk among the justices, cracked a joke. Or so it seemed to people in the courtroom.
The court transcript confirms that Justice Thomas spoke, for the first time since Feb. 22, 2006. It attributes these words to him, after a follow-up comment from Justice Scalia concerning a male graduate of Harvard Law School:
“Well — he did not — .”
Although the transcription is incomplete, some people in the courtroom understood him to say, in a joshing tone, that a law degree from Yale could actually be proof of incompetence or ineffectiveness. Others thought that he might have been referring to Harvard. What follows in the transcript supports the view that Justice Thomas made an actual point."
We wonder what Justice Thomas may utter next . . .
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