Justice Thomas: The Ideas of 1776 Are a Way of Life, Not Intellectual Playthings

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the principles of the Declaration of Independence should be lived, not treated as abstract, intellectualized theories during a lecture this week at the University of Texas, Austin.

"Even those who support them too often talk about them as if they were academic playthings. They overcomplicate them, take the spirit out of them, and discuss them in a way that puts us to sleep," he said. "But the principles of the Declaration of Independence, as I encountered them, are a way of life. They are not an abstract theory that you only learn in college or law school, but the basic premises of our Constitution and government that you can learn from the people all around you."

"We knew that life, liberty, and property were sacrosanct. Those truths were self-evident to the adults in our lives and were taught to us as indelible, undeniable truths."


"Throughout my youth, these truths were articles of faith that were impervious to bigotry and discrimination," he said. "Despite the multiplicity of laws and customs that reeked of bigotry, it was universally believed among those blacks with whom I lived, and who had very little or no formal education, that in God’s eyes and under our Constitution, we were equal."