Who Appointed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court?

President George H.W. Bush appointed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. Bush announced the nomination on July 1, 1991, and the Senate confirmed Thomas on October 15, 1991, by a vote of 52 to 48.¹ Thomas took his seat on October 23, 1991, becoming the second African American to serve on the Court.²

The Seat Thomas Filled

The vacancy opened when Justice Thurgood Marshall announced his retirement on June 27, 1991, citing declining health.³ Marshall had served on the Court since 1967 and was its first African American justice.⁴ Before joining the bench, he had argued dozens of landmark civil rights cases as lead counsel for the NAACP, most famously Brown v. Board of Education.

Marshall was among the most liberal justices of the twentieth century. Thomas arrived as a deeply conservative jurist. The swap reshaped the Court’s balance for a generation.

How Bush Announced the Choice

Bush announced the nomination at a press conference outside his vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine, describing Thomas as “a fiercely independent thinker with an excellent legal mind” who “believes passionately in equal opportunity for all Americans.”³ He told reporters he had followed Thomas’s career “for some time” and that Thomas had “excelled in everything that he has attempted.”⁵

Bush insisted that race played no part in the decision and said Thomas was simply the best-qualified candidate he had considered. That claim drew immediate skepticism. Thomas was only 43, had served barely a year on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and was replacing the Court’s first and only Black justice. Critics saw the choice as a calculated move to place a conservative African American in Marshall’s seat, making it politically difficult for civil rights organizations to oppose him.

Who Clarence Thomas Was in 1991

Thomas grew up in Pin Point, Georgia, a small, predominantly Black community near Savannah. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1971 and earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 1974.⁶ After Yale, he worked as an assistant attorney general in Missouri under then–Attorney General John Danforth, a connection that would prove pivotal to his career.

President Reagan appointed Thomas to lead the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1982, a role he held for nearly eight years.⁶ His tenure there was controversial, as he shifted the agency away from class-action discrimination suits and toward individual complaints. In March 1990, Bush appointed him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, widely considered the second most powerful court in the country. He served there for roughly sixteen months before the Supreme Court nomination.

The Anita Hill Hearings

The confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee were already contentious when, in early October 1991, reports leaked that a former subordinate had accused Thomas of sexual harassment. Anita Hill, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma who had worked under Thomas at both the Department of Education and the EEOC, was called to testify publicly on October 11, 1991.

Hill described a pattern of unwanted sexual comments Thomas allegedly made while serving as her supervisor. She testified that Thomas repeatedly pressured her to go out with him, discussed pornographic material in her presence, and made crude remarks about his own anatomy. Thomas categorically denied all of the allegations and called the proceedings “a high-tech lynching for uppity Blacks.” The televised hearings riveted the country and exposed deep fault lines over gender, race, and power in the workplace.

The all-male Judiciary Committee drew widespread criticism for its handling of Hill’s testimony. Several senators questioned her credibility and motives in ways that struck many viewers as dismissive. The hearings became a cultural flashpoint often credited with contributing to the record number of women elected to the Senate in 1992.

The Confirmation Vote

On October 15, 1991, the full Senate confirmed Thomas by a vote of 52 to 48.¹ That margin was narrow by historical standards. Eleven Democrats voted in Thomas’s favor, and two Republicans voted against him, reflecting how thoroughly the Hill controversy had scrambled ordinary partisan lines.

Senator John Danforth of Missouri, Thomas’s former employer and longtime mentor, served as his primary advocate during the Senate floor debate, speaking in his favor at the start of proceedings on October 3, 1991.⁷ Danforth’s personal credibility as a moderate Republican was seen as critical to holding enough votes for confirmation. Thomas received his commission on October 18, 1991, and took his judicial oath five days later.

How Supreme Court Appointments Work

The power to appoint Supreme Court justices comes from Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which gives the President authority to nominate justices “by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate.”⁸ The President picks the nominee, but the appointment only becomes official once the Senate votes to confirm. Neither branch can seat a justice alone.

Once confirmed, justices serve during “good Behaviour,” which in practice means a life appointment. They can be removed only through impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate.⁹ That design was intended to insulate the judiciary from political pressure, and it also means a single appointment can shape American law for decades. Thomas remains on the bench, the longest-serving member of the current Court.²

1
U.S. Senate. U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 102nd Congress – 1st Session
2
Supreme Court of the United States. Biographies of Current Justices
3
C-SPAN. Supreme Court Nomination Announcement
4
National Park Service. Thurgood Marshall – A Legacy of Civil Rights Leadership
5
The American Presidency Project. The President’s News Conference in Kennebunkport, Maine
6
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Clarence Thomas
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C-SPAN. Senator Danforth Supporting Clarence Thomas
8
Constitution Annotated. Constitution Annotated – Appointments Clause
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Supreme Court of the United States. The Court as an Institution