e helped cause Thomas to form his intolerant stance on preferential treatment for blacks.
Thomas's beliefs would surface again, years later, in his well-known opinion in the case of Hudson v. McMillian. In that case, a black inmate of a Louisiana prison sued his guards for a 1993 beating they had inflicted on him while he was shackled. Thomas sided with another conservative Supreme Court Justice, Anthony Scalia, and held that Hudson was entitled to nothing because he had not suffered a significant injury. However, according to the judge who tried the case, Hudson had suffered bruises and swelling in the face, mouth, and lip, loosened teeth, and a cracked dental plate. Yet Thomas characterized these injuries as minor. While other Supreme Court clerks say that this opinion was actually drafted by Thomas's clerk, Christopher Landau, the opinion smacks of the hard-line approach that Thomas is known for having on racial issues (Toobin, 1993, 47-48).
Certainly Thomas does not intend to deviate from his conservative viewpoints for anyone. Even in high school, Thomas was equally hard on himself. The comment under his yearbook picture shows that Thomas somehow viewed a "98" as a poor mark, while most people would consider it an excellent ma
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