Justice thomas has been wonderfully generous and giving of his time to the society when we called upon him. I want to thank him for taking the time away, particularly this first week of october when things are humming here in the court. We are also grateful to the court at large for allowing us to have this series here in the courtroom. It is my particular pleasure to to introduce Justice Thomas this evening because in the 11th circuit, we refer to him as our judge. Our justice. He was born near savanna on june 23, 1948, and graduated from college at holy cross in 1971 and got his law degree from yale college in 1974. He was promptly appointed after finishing law school as an attorney assistant general and was working under thenattorney general john danforth. When danforth was elected senator, our host this evening followed him to washington and worked for senator danforth. He was appointed assistant secretary for civil rights in the u. S. Department of education in 1981. In 1982, pres