Clarence Thomas will not be teaching a constitutional law seminar at George Washington University School of Law this fall after more than 11,000 students and community members signed a petition asking for his removal.
According to The Hatchet, the university’s student newspaper, Thomas’ co-instructor Gregory Maggs announced the change in an email to students registered in the course.
“Justice Thomas has informed me that he is unavailable to co-teach the seminar this fall,” Maggs wrote. “I know that this is disappointing. I am very sorry.”
Even though the Supreme Court Justice said that his decision to leave was because of unavailability, some students believe it is due to the petition.
Students created the petition one month before Thomas informed the school that he will not teach and shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
The petition bio states: “With the recent Supreme Court decision that has stripped the right to bodily autonomy of people with wombs, and with his explicit intention to further strip the rights of queer people and remove the ability for people to practice safe sex without fear of pregnancy, it is evident that the employment of Clarence Thomas at George Washington University is completely unacceptable.”
While it is unclear why Thomas cancelled, students took credit for his leave.
“We are the level of power that held one of the most powerful men in the nation accountable,” a student wrote in an update to the petition. “Remember this for the future. We are the lever of power that can change this country. No matter how much they may deny it, we the people have the capacity to create outcomes beneficial to us and detrimental to the corrupt and powerful.”
GWU student leaders had also written a letter in June calling for the school to remove Thomas from faculty. In the letter, students urged the university to not give Thomas a platform because of his recent actions with regard to Roe v. Wade and how this could contribute to discrimination.
“We, the student leaders of the George Washington University, find it quite difficult to imagine Professor Clarence Thomas wouldn’t be biased in the classroom if he is actively trying to strip individuals with uteruses of the right to medicine and queer individuals their right to legally exist,” the letter stated.
The letter was signed by more than fifty students who hold leadership positions for organizations at George Washington University.
