After five years, Yale still refuses to display a portrait of Justice Thomas. In any other context, if this happened to a prominent liberal, it would be asserted that racism was to blame.
But since it’s conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, a political snub will be ignored — if not celebrated.
The Washington Free Beacon reported on Friday that Yale Law School has yet to display a portrait of Thomas, the most senior member of the Supreme Court, despite having commissioned it five years ago.
The Free Beacon noted that in April 2018, Yale Law School Dean Heather Gerken “happily” acknowledged receipt of a donation from Texas billionaire Harlan Crow, who funded the painting of Thomas, a friend.
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Thomas graduated from Yale’s law school in 1974.
In response to Crow’s gesture, Gerken replied at the time, “We are so pleased to welcome the justice to our outstanding gallery of portraits. They will always have a place of prominence at Yale Law School.”
Yet, the Free Beacon noted, “Five years later, students and faculty members say they’ve never seen it, and certainly not displayed in a place of prominence.”
The $105,000 painting of the conservative dean of the court, who also happens to be black, exists.
New York City-based artist Jacob Collins, who was hired to paint it, told the Free Beacon that his records showed the portrait was being framed in March 2019 and that it was delivered to the school shortly thereafter. Yale even sent him a letter thanking him for the submission.
But its location remains a mystery.
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The Free Beacon reported that Yale takes one of two routes with such portraits. They are either automatically displayed and hang at the dean’s discretion.
The first category includes Yale alumni or faculty members who have served as president of the United States, justices of the Supreme Court, or chief judge of one of the circuit courts — a category that undoubtedly includes Justice Thomas.
George Priest, a Yale Law School professor who helped the school fix its relationship with Thomas, was confident the portrait would be shown one day. It’s just unclear when that is.
“It’ll be hung, there’s no doubt about that. We have [former Supreme Court Justice] Abe Fortas’s portrait up, for crying out loud,” Priest told the Free Beacon.
Fortas resigned from the nation’s highest court in 1969 after it became known that he was accepting $20,000 annually from the family foundation of a Wall Street financier — for the rest of his life — in exchange for unspecified legal advice, the Free Beacon reported.
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