Episode 306 GEORGE H.W. BUSH The Clarence Thomas Hearings (Part 1) Thurgood Marshall Retires

George H.W. Bush 1991 The Fall of the Soviet Union

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In July of 1991, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall announced his retirement as a Supreme Court Justice. That would set off the second ugliest fight to date to fill a Supreme Court seat. Only the fight over the nomination of Robert Bork was tougher and Bork lost.
Clarence Thomas was a conservative justice, he was young at age 43, and had had a distinguished career as the head of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and he served on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, He was a Yale Graduate and he had an undergraduate Degree from Holy Cross. He would also be the second African American to sit on the Supreme Court but he was not a liberal nor a Democrat.
That guaranteed him a fight on issues concerning Civil Rights, Affirmative Action, and Abortion rights. Those fights turned out to be only the first round of the Hearings to confirm him. An accusation had been made in some of the FBI reports that had been checking his background and in typical Washington style, it got leaked.
That led to round 2 and a long debate about the sordid tale of sexual harassment between the Conferee and a former employee he had at the EEOC, Dr. Anita Hill. This is the story of some of the most heated hearings ever held on Capitol Hill.

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Chapter

1. A Conversation with Justice Clarence Thomas - CSPAN (00:00:00)

2. Music Intro (00:03:51)

3. Thurgood Marshall speaks with the media about his retirement - June 23, 1991 ABC News with Carol Simpson (00:04:15)

4. Host Randal Wallace introduces the subject matter for the next few shows (00:06:45)

5. Bush leaves conflicted legacy on Supreme Court - Scripps News Service (00:08:36)

6. Host Randal Wallace talks about the situation that blew up on the national stage (00:11:20)

7. July 1, 1991 ABC News coverage of George H. W. Bush nominates Clarence Thomas for the United States Supreme Court in Kennebunkport , Maine (00:14:27)

8. Host Randal Wallace reads from the diary of George H. W. Bush "All My Best" (00:33:52)

9. Closing music (00:34:28)