Justice Thomas's Constitution

The Court’s most steadfast originalist reaches a historic milestone.

On Thursday, Clarence Thomas became the second-longest-serving justice in Supreme Court history. That milestone would be notable for any jurist. For Thomas, it marks something more: the vindication of a constitutional vision that, for decades, was caricatured as eccentric, angry, or unserious—until the Court, and the country, began catching up.

The occasion comes just as Thomas has again demonstrated why his tenure matters. Last week in Louisiana v. Callais, the Court held that Louisiana’s race-driven congressional map could not be justified by a misconstrued Voting Rights Act. As my colleague Dan Morenoff explained, Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion was correct in tightening Section 2 doctrine so that it no longer forces states into racial sorting. But Thomas, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, concurred to say what he’s said for over 30 years: Section 2 doesn’t regulate districting at all.

That’s Thomas in full. He joins the Court when it moves toward the Constitution, but doesn’t trim his sails merely because a plurality of colleagues has stopped short of first principles.