Supreme Court Justice Breaks His Silence On Monday, Justice Clarence Thomas asked several questions during oral arguments for the first time in a decade. He's said he prefers to listen, that questions don't help.

Law

Supreme Court Justice Breaks His Silence

Supreme Court Justice Breaks His Silence

  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/468673950/468673951" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

On Monday, Justice Clarence Thomas asked several questions during oral arguments for the first time in a decade. He's said he prefers to listen, that questions don't help.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep. On the day after Clarence Thomas spoke - the Supreme Court justice is famously silent during arguments, but yesterday he asked questions for the first time in a decade. He said he prefers to listen - that questions don't help. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports that a lawyer's argument yesterday seemed to come up eight minutes short of the allotted time. So here's a theory. Maybe by asking nine questions, Justice Thomas was being helpful after all. It's MORNING EDITION.

Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.