About 30 protesters dressed in black chanted in the courtyard at the UF Levin College of Law Tuesday to object to the arrival of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on UF’s campus.
Protesters shouted “One in three, believe me,” in reference to rates of sexual assault on UF’s campus while brandishing signs. Anita Hill’s testimony was projected onto the wall of the courtyard. A moment of silence in solidarity with victims of sexual violence followed.
Thomas is co-teaching a two-week course titled, “Religious Clauses of the First Amendment,” alongside UF Law alum Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who is the first UF alum to clerk for the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a statement by Laura Rosenbury, the law school’s dean.
Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. He was accused of sexual harassment during his 1991 confirmation hearings by Anita Hill, who had worked for him at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thomas denied the allegations, claiming that they were fabricated by Hill and her supporters to prevent a black, conservative judge from sitting on the Supreme Court. He referred to the hearings as a “high-tech lynching.”
Law students received the announcement of the course in an email from Rosenbury Oct. 3. The announcement sparked the creation of a group called UF Law Believes Survivors by eight law students who felt that Thomas’ presence on campus shows a lack of accountability and a lack of acknowledgement of the pain experienced by survivors of sexual violence, said 24-year-old second-year UF law student Dalia Sigueredo.
The group has organized a series of events in response to Thomas’ arrival on campus this week. Sloan Henry, a 29-year-old third-year UF law student who spoke at the protest, said his arrival had been downplayed by the law school.
Rosenbury wrote in a statement that, “We recognize and respect all viewpoints and encourage our students to express their views as part of the marketplace of ideas that is academia.”
When questioned about how much Thomas would be paid, Associate Dean Whitney Smith referred The Alligator to the Supreme Court’s public information office.
Angela Frank, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Supreme Court, said that Thomas was not being compensated for the position and that there was no written contract between Thomas and UF. Any travel and accommodation expenses provided by the school would be reported on his annual financial disclosure report.
Concerns for Thomas’ security have prompted an increase in police presence in the area, and law students have to swipe their Gator 1 Cards to get into the building, Henry said.
Both Sigueredo and Henry said the group has productive goals that they hope to work on after Thomas leaves campus to reduce the number of sexual assault cases, such as instituting the Green Dot program fully at UF.
“We don’t want to just be noise,” Henry said. “We want to create some change and create dialogue.”
Contact Kaelyn Cassidy at kcassidy@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @kaelyn_cassidy.
UF law students Anne Marie Tamburro and Brenna Cameron stand for a moment of silence in solidarity with victims of sexual violence at the protest against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Tuesday.
