October 15, 1991: Clarence Thomas Is Confirmed for the U.S. Supreme Court

October 15, 1991: The U.S. Senate votes to confirm Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, by a very close vote of 52-48. He got the support of 41 Republicans and 11 Democrats, while 46 Democrats and 2 Republicans voted against him.

He had been appointed by President George H.W. Bush, to fill the seat of the retiring Thurgood Marshall, who had been the 1st black Justice on the Court. Thomas was the 2nd, and, at the time, his record was so thin, liberals alleged that Bush was only appointing him because he was a black conservative. I am of the firm belief that had he been, pardon the choice of words, judged solely on his qualifications, he would have been rejected.

But women came forward to allege that he had sexually harassed them, and the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee -- especially Orrin Hatch of Utah, Alan Simpson of Wyoming, and, more than any of them, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania -- attacked the credibility of these women.

Especially ill-treated by those Senators was the most compelling witness, Anita Hill, who had recently been appointed the 1st black professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Thomas had been Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) under President Ronald Reagan, and Hill testified under oath that she and other subordinates had been harassed by Thomas.

He, also under oath, denied the charges. One of them was lying; therefore, one of them was committing perjury, a federal felony. Given that Hill's testimony was calm, and Thomas' was one step below a full-on rant, it appeared that Thomas was the one lying, which not only should have disqualified him on the spot, but put him under criminal investigation.

I think the charges against Thomas made the Republicans dig their heels in, and do whatever it took to get his nomination confirmed, just for the sake of angering Democrats. Or, as would be said in the 21st Century, "to own the libs."

Thomas has been part of the conservative bulwark of the Court that gave us such unacceptable decisions as Bush v. Gore (stopping the recount of the Florida votes in the 2000 Presidential election), Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission (the 2010 case that struck down campaign finance laws), and Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (the 2022 case that repealed Roe v. Wade and took away a woman's Constitutionally established right to decide for herself if and when to have a child). Until Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016, Thomas was notorious for simply voting the exact same way Scalia did, doing so 91 percent of the time.

Although no further allegations of sexual harassment have been leveled at Thomas, he may well be the worst Justice of the last 100 years -- and, with the death of Scalia and the retirement in 2018 of Anthony Kennedy, he is now the seniormost Justice. His wife, Ginni -- white, and flat-out crazy -- had an active role in the Capitol Insurrection of 2021.

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October 15, 1991 was a Tuesday. This was an off-day in baseball's postseason. Two days earlier, the Minnesota Twins had won the American League Pennant, beating the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL Championship Series.

It was a travel day in the National League Championship Series, with the Pittsburgh Pirates leading the Atlanta Braves, 3 games to 2, with Game 6 and, if necessary, Game 7 in Pittsburgh. But the Braves won both of those games, to take their 1st Pennant in 23 years, since 1958, when they were still in Milwaukee. The Twins went on to beat the Braves in 7 games, in one of the best World Series ever played.

Football was in midweek. The NBA season didn't start until November 1. There were 4 games played in the NHL, only 1 involving a New York Tri-State Area team:

* The New York Islanders lost to the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins, 7-6 at the Nassau Coliseum. The Isles blew a 6-2 lead. Mario Lemieux scored a hat trick, and Phil Bourque scored the winning goal with 2:30 left in overtime.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-1 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-1 at the St. Louis Arena.

* And the Calgary Flames beat the Minnesota North Stars, 6-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.