Poison in the Ear: The Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing of Justice Clarence Thomas
32 Pages Posted: 28 Sep 2018 Last revised: 1 Nov 2018
Date Written: September 27, 2018
Abstract
When confronted with rival claims of the same event but denied any definitive way of choosing between them, when forced to decide who is lying and who is telling the truth but offered nothing by way of conclusive evidence—nothing by way of what Shakespeare’s Othello calls “ocular proof”— how, ultimately, do we decide what we decide? What explains, in other words, what we end up believing in situations where observable facts are absent and we must instead rely on, essentially, theatrical representations?
This paper explores theses questions through the lens of the newly relevant Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas and the classic Shakespearean tragedy that a prominent member of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, Senator Al Simpson of Wyoming, compared it to: Othello.
Keywords: sexual harassment, Othello, law and literature, rhetoric, confirmation hearing, Anita Hill
JEL Classification: K10
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation