ST. LOUIS (AP) – Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has reunited in St. Louis with his mentor and the man who stood beside him through a difficult confirmation hearing, telling former Sen. John Danforth he owes him his career.
Thomas spoke Friday at a Law Day event sponsored by the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.
The 68-year-old justice has spent 26 years on the Supreme Court. But his legal roots are in Missouri. In 1974, Danforth, then Missouri’s attorney general, offered Thomas his first job out of law school.
President George H.W. Bush nominated Thomas to the Supreme Court in 1991. His confirmation was nearly derailed by Anita Hill’s claims that Thomas sexually harassed her.
Throughout the hearings, Danforth stood by Thomas. In introducing Thomas he called the confirmation hearing a “dreadful ordeal.”