JUSTICE THOMAS TO SPEAK AT SEMO TUESDAY

Former U.S. senator John Danforth hopes Cape Girardeau will greet Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with open arms.

Thomas will visit Southeast Missouri State University Tuesday.

"I hope people let him know that they like him. He is a very nice human being. He has had a very rough go," said Danforth, a friend and one of Thomas's staunchest supporters.

Danforth said Thomas was unfairly attacked by critics during the 1991 Senate confirmation hearing in which an Oklahoma law professor accused the nominee of sexual harassment.

"It was such a terrible thing to happen to a human being, a total breakdown of fairness and due process of law," said Danforth.

"I guess my hope has been that the public would respond to that with real revulsion and this will never happen again," Danforth said.

"It is much easier to destroy a reputation than to build one, unfortunately," he said.

Thomas will talk with criminal justice and philosophy students at 1:30 p.m. in Crisp Auditorium. He will speak on the changing legal system at 7 p.m. at the Show Me Center.

Written questions will be collected before the speech and Thomas will answer them at the conclusion of his speech.

C-SPAN will tape the speech for later broadcast.

Fund-raising receptions will be held both before and after the event. Money raised will go to defray the cost of the visit.

Advance tickets are free. But tickets at the door will cost $5 for general admission and $10 for seats on the arena floor.

Nathan Cooper, coordinator of the event, said the reason for charging for general-admission tickets at the door is to encourage people to pick up advance tickets so organizers can accurately gauge attendance.

A Southeast student, Cooper is president of the Conservative Club, one of the main sponsors of the event.

To date, about 600 tickets have been distributed in the community. Southeast students and professors will be admitted free with school I.D.

As a result, Cooper said it is hard to judge how many people will attend.

He said he hopes Thomas' speech will attract from 1,500 to 2,000 people.

"We have responses from all over the Bootheel," Cooper said.

People are coming from as far away as St. Charles and Columbia. "We have students from the University of Missouri-Rolla and Mizzou coming down."

Groups of students from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and Three Rivers Community College at Poplar Bluff, and a class from a Jefferson County High School also are expected to attend.

"There has been a great interest on campus," Cooper said.

Brian Blair, a criminal justice student at Southeast, is excited about Thomas' visit.

"Rarely do students get the opportunity to interact with an individual who has such an important role in shaping the nation's public policy," he said.

Thomas will visit Danforth in St. Louis this weekend.

Danforth said Thomas believes in judicial restraint. "He believes the Constitution should be interpreted as written and not embellished with the personal views of the justices."