BYU Law Professor Aaron Nielson’s paper “Clarence Thomas the Questioner” is featured in Law360‘s article, “High Court Will Benefit From More Thomas Talk, Scholars Say.” Professor Nielson co-authored the paper with RonNell Andersen Jones at the University of Utah. As stated in the paper: “Drawing on the most comprehensive collection of Thomas’s oral argument questions ever compiled, we urge the Justice to ask more questions for a new reason: he is good at it.”
The Law360 article highlights Professor Nielson and Jones’ characterization of Justice Thomas as a “model questioner:” “’Indeed, the picture of Clarence Thomas, the Questioner, that emerges is one that exemplifies key attributes of judicial questioning,’ the professors said. ‘Thomas is a fact-stickler, boundary-tester, attorney-respecter, statute-parser, insight-offerer, plain-speaker, and team-player. This combination makes Thomas a powerful questioner — when he chooses to ask questions.’”
View Professor Nielson’s SSRN paper: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2862240
View Law360 article (registration required): https://www.law360.com/appellate/articles/858534