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On July 1, 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court of the United States to replace Thurgood Marshall, who had announced his retirement. The nomination proceedings were contentious from the start, especially over the issue of abortion, and many women's groups and civil rights groups opposed Thomas on the basis of his conservative political views, as they had also opposed Bush's Supreme Court nominee from the previous year, David Souter. Toward the end of the confirmation hearings, sexual harassment allegations by Anita Hill, a law professor who had previously worked under Thomas at the United States Department of Education and then at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), were leaked to the media from a confidential FBI report. The allegations led to a media frenzy and further investigations. Televised hearings were re-opened and held by the Senate Judiciary Committee before the nomination was moved to the full Senate for a vote. Thomas was confirmed by a narrow majority of 52 to 48. ==Nomination== Justice William Brennan stepped down from the Supreme Court in 1990. Thomas was one of five candidates on Bush's shortlist and was the one that Bush was most interested in nominating. Bush's staff made four arguments against nominating Thomas at the time: Thomas had only served eight months as a judge at the time; his appointment would result in two African-Americans on the Court at one time; Bush could expect to replace Thurgood Marshall with Thomas in due time; and multiple senior advisors told Bush that they did not feel that Thomas was ready. Bush eventually decided to nominate Judge David Souter of the First Circuit instead, who was easily confirmed. White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu promised that Bush would fill the next Supreme Court vacancy with a "true conservative" and predicted a "knock-down, drag-out, bloody-knuckles, grass-roots fight" over confirmation.〔Jefferson, Margo. ("The Thomas-Hill Question, Answered Anew" ), ''New York Times'' (November 11, 1994).〕 On July 1, 1991, President Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to replace Marshall, who had recently announced his retirement.〔Dowd, Maureen. ("The Supreme Court; Conservative Black Judge, Clarence Thomas, Is Named to Marshall's Court Seat" ), ''New York Times'' (July 2, 1991).〕 By then, Thomas had been a federal judge for 16 months.〔(Profile ) at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a Public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center. Accessed November 1, 2011.〕 He had not previously argued before the Court, though that has not been a traditional requirement.〔Toobin, Jeffrey. The Nine. First Anchor Books Edition, September 2008. Page 31.〕 Marshall had been the first African American Justice on the Court, and while the appointment of Thomas would preserve the existing racial composition of the Court, it was seen as likely to move its ideological balance to the right. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh had previously warned Bush that replacing Thurgood Marshall, who was widely revered as a civil rights icon, with any candidate who was not perceived to share Marshall's views would make the confirmation process difficult.〔 Civil rights and feminist organizations opposed Thomas' appointment, partially citing Thomas's criticism of affirmative action and also because they were suspicious that Thomas might not be a supporter of ''Roe v. Wade''. In the second half of the 20th century, Supreme Court nominees were customarily evaluated by a committee of the American Bar Association (ABA) before being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee.〔Hall, Kermit and McGuire, Kevin. ''(The Judicial Branch )'', p. 155 (Oxford University Press 2006).〕 Anticipating that the ABA would rate Thomas poorly, the White House and Republican Senators pressured the ABA for at least the mid-level "qualified" rating, and simultaneously attempted to discredit the ABA as partisan.〔Senior Republicans believed that Thomas was indeed well-qualified, but that the ABA would not support him because in their mind, the ABA had been politicized. The White House attempted to preemptively discredit the ABA as partisan, and Republican Senators threatened to bar the ABA from future participation if it gave Thomas anything less than a "qualified" rating.〕〔 Ultimately, on a scale of well-qualified, qualified, or unqualified, 12 members voted that he was "qualified", one abstained, and the other two voted "not qualified", for an overall vote of qualified. This vote represented one of the lowest levels of support for Supreme Court nominees.〔Foskett, Ken. ''Judging Thomas'', p. 224 (William Morrow 2004).〕〔Abraham, Henry. ''(Justices, Presidents, and Senators: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments From Washington to Bush II )'', pp. 27-30, 299 (Rowman and Littlefield 2007).〕〔Yalof, David. ''(Pursuit of Justices: Presidential Politics and the Selection of Supreme Court Nominees )'', page 214 (University of Chicago Press, 2001).〕〔Segal, Jeffrey and Spaeth, Harold. ''(The Supreme Court and the attitudinal model revisited )'', page 187 (Cambridge University Press, 2002).〕〔Hall, Kermit and McGuire, Kevin. ''(Institutions of American Democracy: The Judicial Branch )'', page 155 (Oxford University Press, 2006).〕 Although the ABA vote was viewed as a "significant embarrassment to the Bush administration", it ultimately had little impact on Thomas' nomination.〔Viera, Norman and Gross, Leonard. ''(Supreme Court appointments: Judge Bork and the politicization of Senate Confirmations )'', page 137 (SIU Press, 1998).〕 Some of the public statements of Thomas's opponents foreshadowed the confirmation fight that would occur. One such statement came from African-American activist attorney Florynce Kennedy at a July 1991 conference of the National Organization for Women in New York City. Referring to the failure of Ronald Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork, she said of Thomas, "We're going to 'bork' him."〔("The Borking Begins; Linda Chavez's mistake was she took a less fortunate person into her home" ) (Editorial), ''Wall Street Journal'' (January 8, 2001).〕 The liberal campaign to defeat the Bork nomination served as a model for liberal interest groups opposing Thomas.〔Tushnet, Mark. (A Court Divided ), p. 335 (Norton & Company 2005).〕 Likewise, in view of what had happened to Bork, Thomas's confirmation hearings were also approached as a political campaign by the White House and Senate Republicans. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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