Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Salon
Salon
Politics
Kelly McClure

Is Clarence Thomas' law clerk a racist?

In yet another scandal involving Justice Clarence Thomas, he recently hired a new law clerk set to begin in the upcoming term who has been accused of being a racist.

Crystal Clanton, a 2022 graduate from the Antonin Scalia Law School, was the subject of a 2017 feature by The New Yorker which revealed that while she was working as a field director at Turning Point USA in 2015, she allegedly sent a text message to a fellow employee reading, “I hate black people. Like f**k them all . . . I hate blacks. End of story.” And while at the time of the feature being written she claimed to "have no recollection of these messages," telling the publication in a statement that "they do not reflect what I believe or who I am and the same was true when I was a teenager," it makes her a worrisome choice none the less. 

As The New York Times points out, Clanton has maintained a close relationship with Justice Thomas and his wife, Virginia Thomas — who once served on the advisory board of Turning Point USA — and Thomas maintains that the allegations against his new clerk are "unfounded." But the racist text message previously mentioned is not the only allegation she's tied to. According to Mediaite, who reported on her in 2018, she allegedly also shared a Snapchat photo during her time at TPUSA of a man who appears to be Arab with a caption she wrote that reads, “Just thinking about ways to do another 9/11.”

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.