Matthews: Clarence Thomas Would Have Ruled Against Desegregation, Civil Rights

MSNBC Host Chris Matthews: “Does anyone wonder like I do what this Supreme Court – the one personified by Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas — would have done with the landmark decisions in the post-World War II era? I wonder if this court would have backed desegregation in the Brown case. I doubt this pack of conservatives, which includes Chief Justice John Roberts, Sam Alito and Anthony Kennedy, would have voted to knock down “separate but equal” in the 1950s. I doubt this group would have removed organized prayer from public schools back in the 1960s – that decision that ignited the moral majority. I doubt that this court would have recognized a woman’s right to decide on an abortion in the 1970s. Let me proffer a tougher judgment: would this court – voting as it does today – have upheld the 1964 Civil Rights Bill, which declared it illegal to refuse access to someone because of race to a restaurant, hotel or a gas station restroom? Would Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy and Alito have approved such a decision, or would they have joined the dissent? Well, maybe Kennedy would have.”