Clarence Thomas: The Justice Nobody Knows

Supreme Court Justice Gives First Television Interview To 60 Minutes' Steve Kroft

(CBS)  Shortly after Thomas moved to Washington in 1979, he was pressed into service by the Reagan administration, which was anxious to attract black conservative talent. Over the next ten years, he was undersecretary of education for civil rights, served two terms as chairman of the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, and was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington.

And after just 15 months, his name was floated as a possible replacement for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, a hero of the civil rights movement and the only African-American on the Supreme Court.

What was his reaction when it first dawned on him he might end up on the Supreme Court?

"Pick the other guy," Thomas says. "You know, I had already bitten off more than I could chew. I was tired. When I was nominated to this court, that was five nominations in ten years."

In July 1991, he was told to fly to Kennebunkport, Maine, to have a chat with President Bush. Thomas assumed it was an interview about the Supreme Court vacancy.

"He said, 'Can you and your family make it through a difficult confirmation?' I should have said no at that point. But that would have been the coward's way out. I said yes. Then he asked me, he said, 'If you go on the court, can you call them as you see them?' And I said yes. And then he looked me in the eye. And he said, 'I will never criticize any decision you make.' And he said, 'At 2:00 I'm gonna nominate you to the Supreme Court. Let's go have lunch,'" Thomas remembers.

The nomination immediately came under attack. President Bush had called Thomas the best qualified candidate for the job, and said that race had not been a factor in his selection. But not even Thomas was sure he believed it. He was only 43 years old with barely a year's experience on the bench, but he was confident he could do the job.

"You had no illusions about how difficult it was going to be to get confirmed?" Kroft asks.

"I eventually did have illusions because as bad as I thought it would be, I had no idea how bad it would be," Thomas says.

Thomas spent three and a half months preparing for the hearings, and survived a five-day grilling by the Senate Judiciary Committee about his conservative views on affirmative action, welfare, capital punishment, school prayer and abortion. Then his nomination was sent to the full Senate, where it appeared Thomas had enough votes to be confirmed.

What happened next?

Says Thomas, "The next round of attacks that I could never have anticipated, took place."

Anita Hill, a former employee of Thomas's, had submitted a confidential statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee alleging that Thomas had sexually harassed her ten years earlier, when they were both single. The FBI had already investigated the charges and given the judiciary what was called an inconclusive report. The committee decided not to pursue the matter. But two days before the full Senate was expected to confirm Thomas, Hill's statement was leaked to the media.

"It was only after they had been leaked illegally, to the public and the press, that then it’s outta hand. It's in the feeding frenzy," Thomas explains.

Under pressure from women's groups and Democrats in the Congress, Anita Hill was summoned before the judiciary committee to testify before live television cameras. More than 20 million households tuned in to watch the proceedings which were more titillating than the soap operas.