Supreme decade - Thomas balances work with raising grandnephew

WASHINGTON -- Most workdays, Clarence Thomas beats his eight Supreme Court colleagues to the office. He drives his black Corvette through the suburban Virginia dawn and scoots into the court's garage by 6 a.m.

After a decade on the nation's high court, Thomas has settled into a comfortable routine that balances the court's heavy workload of reading and writing with a busy life of travel and raising a young grandnephew.

He has also found a comfortable home on the court's far right. He remains in the shadow of ideological bunkmate Antonin Scalia but is willing to write separate manifestos that stake a more absolutist position on cases involving religion, free speech and other issues.

The court term that begins this fall offers Thomas, the second black to serve on the court, another chance to rule against affirmative action. He steadfastly opposes it as an insult to the values of hard work and self-reliance.

"Justice Thomas enjoys marching to his own drummer," said Clint Bolick, vice president of the libertarian law firm Institute for Justice. Bolick has known Thomas since they worked together in the 1980s.

'Lynching' Thomas

Comfort has not come cheaply for the man whose searingly public job interview in the fall of 1991 featured naughty words, allegations of lewd office come-ons and Thomas' famous, furious charge that he was the victim of a "high-tech lynching."

An array of liberal and civil rights groups had opposed Thomas from the start and described him as a potentially dangerous, far-right extremist. But 10 years later is it probably the surprise allegations of Thomas' young accuser, Anita Hill, that linger in most Americans' minds.

Thomas denied Hill's allegations, President Bush stuck by him, and Thomas was confirmed by a 52-48 vote. He took his seat in October 1991.

"He has been every bit as conservative and more as his critics thought he would be," said Earl Maltz, a constitutional law professor and Supreme Court specialist at Rutgers University's law school. "I think he has also been more of an intellectual force to be reckoned with than people thought he would be."

Around the court Thomas is known as a friendly, even jovial fellow with a booming laugh that startles timid new law clerks.

Although thicker and grayer than he was during the hearings, Thomas at 53 is still the youngest of the nine justices. He is also the only one with a school-age child at home, an experience that associates say delights him.

Part of the reason for his early hours is that Thomas tries to be home to help his grandnephew, Mark, with homework after school. Like Thomas, Mark was born to difficult circumstances in Georgia. Thomas sought custody of the boy four years ago, when the boy was 6, much as his own, strict grandfather took in the young Thomas at about the same age.

As one of the few high-ranking black people in government, Thomas remains a polarizing figure and persona non grata for many civil rights groups.

"His influence is growing and will grow increasingly over time," Bolick said.