GWU allows Clarence Thomas to remain as a professor despite student protests
The university has chosen to stand by the Supreme Court justice despite a petition signed by more than 8,000 demanding his termination.
Students at George Washington University have been protesting Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ role as an adjunct professor in the wake of his concurring opinion in overturning Roe v. Wade, as well as his wife’s reported role in the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election result.
According to CNN, the university has chosen to stand by the associate justice, who teaches a constitutional law seminar, despite a petition signed by more than 8,000 people that also cited Thomas’ conservative views on same-sex marriage and contraception.
“With the recent Supreme Court decision that has stripped the right to bodily autonomy of people with wombs, and with his explicit intention to further strip the rights of queer people and remove the ability for people to practice safe sex without fear of pregnancy, it is evident that the employment of Clarence Thomas at George Washington University is completely unacceptable,” reads the Change.org petition.
“While also factoring in his wife’s part in the attempted coup in January of 2021,” it continues, “Judge Thomas is actively making life unsafe for thousands of students on our campus (not to mention thousands of campuses across the country).”
Investigations by the Jan. 6 committee recently revealed that Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas, sent extensive text messages to former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows with a number of suggestions on how to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In a campuswide email obtained by CNN, Provost Christopher Alan Bracey and Law Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew cited academic freedom in writing that Thomas will be retained at the school.
“Justice Thomas has been a consistent critic of the Court’s legal philosophy on substantive due process for many years,” the email said. “Because we steadfastly support the robust exchange of ideas and deliberation, and because debate is an essential part of our university’s academic and educational mission to train future leaders who are prepared to address the world’s most urgent problems, the university will neither terminate Justice Thomas’ employment nor cancel his class in response to his legal opinions.”
George Washington University students have vowed to continue their protests.
“This isn’t about ideological agreement,” claimed Jon Kay, who crafted the petition on Change.org. “It’s about a teacher having respect for his students.”
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