Thomas Rejects Notion He Follows Scalia

That's the title of an Associated Press article today. This hasn't been news to anyone who has paid attention to the Supreme Court for, oh, about the past 15 years or so. But apparently it's news to the AP:

ATLANTA (AP) -- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas condemned suggestions that he follows the lead of fellow conservative Antonin Scalia, telling an audience Thursday the notion is based on a racial stereotype.

The current court's only black justice said critics accuse him of picking up cues from Scalia, an Italian-American known as the court's most conservative member.

"Obviously, what it's based on is that I'm black and I'm supposed to think in a certain way," said Thomas, responding to an audience member's question about how he arrives at his judicial opinions. "And there's no way, since I'm not supposed to think that way, that I can come up with that myself, so I must be following somebody. You make your own judgments about that line of reasoning."

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No question provoked a quicker response from Thomas than when he was asked which of his fellow justices he would least like to argue against.

"I'm not answering that," he said to laughter. "You got to remember when this whole book thing is done, I've got to get back to work."