The Next Clarence Thomas?

By Keith Boykin, in politics
Monday, May 5 2003, 11:35AM

He's young, black and conservative, and President Bush wants him to serve on one of the nation's highest courts. Meet Claude Allen. He could be the next Clarence Thomas. But Allen's conservative gay-baiting record is already coming under scrutiny.

President Bush nominated Allen last week to the nation's most conservative federal appeals court, the 4th Circuit, a court with jurisdiction over the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. Already many are raising an eyebrow.

Hatchet Man for Helms

Allen is most notorious for his service as press secretary to arch conservative U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.). During Helms's 1984 Senate race against Governor Jim Hunt, Allen personally accused Hunt's campaign of being linked "with the queers."

The connection to Jesse Helms did not end in 1984. In an interview with The Raleigh News & Observer just last year, Allen said the time he spent with Helms had a lasting impact on him.

"Knowing him has shaped me in many ways in terms of my values and how I conduct myself, all for the good," Allen told the paper.

What about Jesse Helms's offensive rhetoric, his opposition to affirmative action, his race-baiting re-election campaigns, his vote against the Martin Luther King holiday? What did Allen do? He says he left work early the day Helms voted against the creation of a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Well there's political courage for you.

Right-Wing Ideology

Allen's record on right-wing causes goes beyond his affiliation with Jesse Helms. While he served as secretary of health and human resources in Virginia, Allen opposed efforts to expand Medicaid coverage of children, calling it an expansion of welfare, and he fought with lawmakers over improving the state's mental hospitals.

Currently the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Allen has been the point man for abstinence-only sex education to prevent pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Allen has also pushed to double federal funds for abstinence-only educational programs, according to media reports.

Lack of Experience

At age 42, Claude Allen is married with three children who are home schooled, and he is well liked by many of his peers. But that's no reason to appoint a federal judge to a lifetime position on the nation's second highest court, especially since Allen has no previous experience as a judge.

"He fits the profile of a young ideologue without much of a legal or practice paper trail," Michael J. Gerhardt, a law professor at the College of William and Mary and an expert on judicial nominations, told the Washington Post recently.

Lack of Blacks On The 4th Circuit

With all the controversy expected around Claude Allen's nomination, it might be easy to overlook the president's nomination of Republican Allyson Duncan to the 4th Circuit on the same day.

In the past ten years, no North Carolinian has been approved to serve on the 4th Circuit, which would make the appointment of Duncan, from Raleigh, a breakthrough. She already seems to have the support of the both the Democratic and the Republican senators from North Carolina.

Beyond geography lies the issue of race. Duncan, 51, would be the first black woman to sit on the 4th Circuit. Democrats will be hard pressed to oppose her nomination, but during the Clinton administration, Senate Republicans blocked four black nominees to the 4th Circuit on grounds that they were too liberal, according to the Washington Blade.

Although blacks make up a higher percentage (22 percent) of the population of the 4th circuit than in any other U.S. circuit, only one black judge serves on the 14-member court, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Why Is This Important?

Since the Supreme Court is the highest court in the land, why worry about the appeals courts? Because the Supreme Court decides only about 100 cases a year, while the federal appeals courts make tens of thousands of rulings annually, often giving them the final word on the law. That's how People for the American Way (PFAW) describes it.

That is why circuit court judges "have been a top target of right-wing groups and senators," according to PFAW. From 1995-2000, Republican Senators blocked 35 percent of President Clinton's appeals court nominees.

"Republican-appointed judges already make up a majority on 7 of the 13 circuit courts of appeals," according to PFAW, "and with the confirmation of President Bush's current nominees, Republican judges would take control of three more," the organization predicts.

Clarence Thomas Redux

Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened. On July 1, 1991, the first George Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the nation's highest court. Thomas was to fill the seat held by revered Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African American on the Supreme Court.

When asked whether the nomination was a quota to fill the "black seat" on the court, Bush responded with a straight face that Thomas was the most qualified person in the country for the job.

After dramatic hearings punctuated by the testimony of law professor Anita Hill, the U.S. Senate confirmed Thomas on October 16, 1991 in a 52-48 vote. Many held their noses and held their breath in the hopes that Thomas would change his colors once he got on the court.

He never did, and instead he has become one of the court's most consistently conservative members on civil rights and civil liberties. Think it can't happen again? Don't be so sure.

Like Claude Allen, Clarence Thomas was a former aide to a Republican senator who had served in the president's administration before being appointed to a federal appeals court with no judicial experience in 1990. A year later, he was on the Supreme Court.

We can't afford to make that mistake again.

Text of President Bush's 1991 nomination of Clarence Thomas

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