Clarence Thomas

Supreme Court Associate Justice (1991–); the most consequential institutional bridge between Claremont’s natural-right jurisprudence and the federal judiciary; cites the Declaration of Independence in his constitutional reasoning under direct Claremont influence

As chairman of the EEOC under Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Thomas hired Claremont scholars Ken Masugi and John Marini as aides — theorists “who understood Lincoln,” in his own description. During what Thomas later recalled as a period of “great intellectual development,” they spent hours discussing Harry V. Jaffa’s teachings on natural law. Thomas began citing the Declaration of Independence in his jurisprudence — the signature move of Declarationism — and has remained the Claremont Institute’s most prominent ally on the bench.

The Claremont–Thomas connection is one of the wiki’s clearest examples of how a marginal academic school (West Coast Straussianism) was institutionalized into the highest reaches of American power.

See also: Claremont Institute, Declarationism, West Coast Straussianism, Harry V. Jaffa, How the Claremont Institute Became a Nerve Center.