Clarence Thomas and the Lost Constitution

Written by Myron Magnet

Narrated by John McLain

When Clarence Thomas joined the Supreme Court in 1991, he found with dismay that it was interpreting a very different Constitution from the one the framers had written—the one that had established a federal government manned by the people's own elected representatives, charged with protecting citizens' inborn rights while leaving them free to work out their individual happiness themselves, in their families, communities, and states.



Thomas, had deep misgivings about the new governmental order. He shared the framers' vision of free, self-governing citizens forging their own fate. And from his own experience growing up in segregated Savannah, flirting with and rejecting black radicalism at college, and running an agency that supposedly advanced equality, he doubted that unelected experts and justices really did understand the moral arc of the universe better than the people themselves, or that the rules and rulings they issued made lives better rather than worse. So in the hundreds of opinions he has written in more than a quarter century on the Court, he has questioned the constitutional underpinnings of the new order and tried to restore the limited, self-governing original one, as more legitimate, more just, and more free than the one that grew up in its stead. The Court now seems set to move down the trail he blazed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Oct 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781515949756

Reviews for Clarence Thomas and the Lost Constitution

[Jeff Wraley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very good book. Excellent review of many of Thomas’s judicial opinions and his understanding of the founding fathers’ desires for the nation’s future. Also really enjoyed the history lesson - the Wilsonian ‘living constitution’, the New Deal and the administrative state - all taking us so far from the original framers’ intent of our government to be ‘by, of and for the people’.

Only negative was that I had trouble following the reader through some of the complex sentences. My wife bought the hard copy, which I’ll read to fully grasp those thoughts. Loved the conclusion comparing the philosophies of Thomas and Obama. Thank you!

[Emilie Lebel · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book didn’t age well. The level of hypocrisy and false sense of virtue contained in this book is outrageous. I wanted to learn more about the so-called "originalist" movement of supreme court justices. Recent rulings prove that these judges are the most biased and partisan, and that they make decisions based on THEIR interpretation of the constitution, not THE interpretation of the constitution.

[SuperNamtab · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I hope that judge Tomas knows how much we appreciate his love we share for the conversation.

[Chrislyn Ruddy · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book was insufferable to anyone with a moderate, conservative interest, or impartial view point. With the elitist tone and selective examples pulled from history it serves to show Thomas as the “grandson of founders”. Thomas has no input in the writing of the book and is the subject of a fan with extensive knowledge of Thomas and history which makes me willing to continue reading more about Thomas. But this author’s bias pours from every sentence and choice of diction and makes it impossible to sift through and glean truth.