Sonia Sotomayor Calls Out Clarence Thomas In LGBTQ School Books Case

The far-right justice would have put severe limits on public school education based on “history and tradition.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered a pointed retort to far-right Justice Clarence Thomas in a U.S. Supreme Court case allowing religious parents to shield their children from lessons involving LGBTQ+ themes, such as a children’s book that features a gay uncle.

While the court’s 6-3 majority sided with the religious parents, Thomas would have gone even further with the decision. Schools should be required to identify a national “history and tradition” of teaching each subject, he argued.

Sotomayor illustrated the absurdity of that argument in her dissent.

“That approach fails to appreciate the constantly evolving nature of education. Classes on computer literacy, robotics, and film studies, to take just a few examples, are modern developments,” Sotomayor wrote in a footnote.

She went on, quoting a history of U.S. public schools: “In the early 19th century, moreover, ‘the common curriculum usually included a handful of elementary subjects,’ such as ‘reading, writing, and arithmetic.’”