Senior Democratic congressman James Clyburn has said his decision to support Clarence Thomas’s nomination to the US Supreme Court “was a mistake” and backed expanding the nation’s highest court to 13 justices.
Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, supported Thomas during his contentious 1991 confirmation hearings, describing him as “a personal and professional friend”. He said their shared experiences of fighting discrimination and advancing civil rights would help Thomas become a respected jurist.
But in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Clyburn said Thomas had abandoned those principles and become an extremist on the court. He pointed to major recent rulings, including the decision overturning federal abortion protections and the ruling ending affirmative action in higher education.
Asked by host Kristen Welker whether he regretted defending Thomas, Clyburn replied:
“I have made mistakes in my life, and that’s one that I made. And I will own up to that mistake.
“I had no idea that Clarence Thomas would rebel the way he has against his own background and experiences. He was raised by his grandfather, and he has shown very little sensitivity to the environment his grandfather grew up down in Pin Point, Georgia.”
Clyburn said Thomas’s leadership of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1982 to 1990, when the agency vigorously pursued anti-discrimination cases, had convinced him that Thomas “believed in precedents, the law”.
He told Welker:
“I had faith and confidence in the fact that his background and experiences would instruct him in his professionalism, especially sitting on the bench. I thought, sure, that he would be here upholding those precedents set down in 1954 in the Brown v Board of Education decision”
That Supreme Court ruling declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Clyburn suggested that Thomas later turned away from civil rights, including in the 2024 ruling that struck down affirmative action in college admissions on ideological grounds.
“That was a mistake on my part,” Clyburn said of his support for Thomas. “And I own up to it.”
Clyburn backs a 13-member Supreme Court
Clyburn spoke as expanding the number of Supreme Court justices returned to the political debate. Increasing the size of the court has become a rallying cry for parts of the Democratic party as it seeks to regain control of the House of Representatives in the November midterm elections.
Former Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris called in July for expanding the court from nine to 13 justices. Clyburn said he supported the proposal.
“Thirteen is a pretty good number,” he said. “A baker’s dozen would be a good number to have on the court.
“And I would hope we would get people on the court who will follow the constitutional underpinnings of this great nation of ours. I had hoped that Clarence Thomas would follow the underpinnings of that constitution of ours, but he has not done so.
“In fact, he’s decided to go all the way from an angry leftist, to a very angry rightist.”
However, Clyburn said Democrats’ immediate priorities after the November elections should not be expanding the Supreme Court or impeaching Donald Trump for a third time across his two presidencies.
“If the Democrats were to take back the House, and I feel confident that we will, our first order of business ought to be developing an accessible and affordable campaign effort that will yield what I will call making this country, its greatness, accessible and affordable for all of its citizens,” he said.
