Clarence Thomas on Welfare & Poverty Supreme Court Justice (nominated by Pres. Bush Sr. 1991)

Public Use Clause limits government's eminent domain power

The Supreme Court ruled in the favor of the City of New London, a dangerous landmark decision in US law.

In his dissenting opinion, Justice Thomas wrote: "The Public Use Clause is a meaningful limit on the government's eminent domain power. So- called "urban renewal" programs provide some compensation for the properties they take, but no compensation is possible for the subjective value of these lands to the individuals displaced and the indignity inflicted by uprooting them from their homes."

Opposed to welfare as the "ruination" of blacks

Public housing entitlements are good programs

JUDGE THOMAS: I think that there are certain programs in our society that have helped. I visited my mother in Fellwood Homes, which is a Federal housing project in Savannah, Georgia. Fellwood Homes was a tenement, [but it was] a steppingstone before she could then move to something better. I thought that those programs were good.

I think we all though in a pluralistic society are concerned that sometimes when we do something that we hope is good that it may on some occasions have a negative impact, and I think that it is not illegitimate to say that some of these programs, or at least some of the ramifications, may not be what we expected and some of the consequences may be unintended consequences.

But I certainly believe that the efforts on behalf of providing public housing to my mother or the efforts of providing relief to individuals who could not receive jobs, etc., were very, very good efforts.