Clarence Thomas is NOT a zombie

So by now you’ve heard that Justice Clarence Thomas uttered something during oral argument.

Politico “Clarence Thomas breaks silence on bench” by Josh Gerstein
AboveTheLaw: ” Quote of the Day: Justice Thomas Speaks!” By David Lat

JUSTICE THOMAS: Well — he did not –
[Laughter]

This is a major news occurrence because he does not ask many questions and has not spoken in oral argument for nearly seven years. See 2011 NYTimes: “No Argument: Thomas Keeps 5-Year Silence” by Adam Liptak.

No one seems to know exactly what Justice Thomas said today but it made the Court laugh and it seems to have been derogatory towards Yale, Harvard or both. This is in keeping with the Justice’s clerk-hiring practices. See “When It Comes to Hiring SCOTUS Clerks, Clarence Thomas Doesn’t Care About the U.S. News Rankings” By Staci Zaretsky.

Recall also from Liptak in 2011: “A Taxonomy of Supreme Court Humor” about a communications study of “The Function of Laughter at SCOTUS”. And recall laughter is a cure for zombie condition.