Justice Thomas to address College of Law commencement May 7

Clarence Thomas, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, will deliver the commencement address to the graduates of the University of Nebraska College of Law at 3 p.m. May 7 at the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

Tickets for the event are available to graduates for their guests. Anyone interested in attending who does not have family or friend providing a ticket can contact the Law College at (402) 472-8375.

Thomas was born in the Pin Point community of Georgia near Savannah June 23, 1948. He attended Conception Seminary and received an A.B., cum laude, from Holy Cross College, and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974. He was admitted to law practice in Missouri in 1974, and served as an assistant attorney general of Missouri from 1974-1977, an attorney with Monsanto Co. from 1977-1979, and legislative assistant to Sen. John Danforth from 1979-1981. From 1981-1982, he served as assistant secretary for civil rights in the U.S. Department of Education, and as chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1982-1990. He became a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990. President George H.W. Bush nominated him as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat Oct. 23, 1991. He married Virginia Lamp in 1987 and has one child, Jamal Adeen, by a previous marriage.

WRITER: Kelly Bartling, University Communications, (402) 472-2059