ATLANTA — When Leah Ward Sears was sworn in Tuesday as chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, at her side was an old friend and fellow Georgian: Clarence Thomas.
They share a hometown, the coastal city of Savannah, and the experience of rising to the top of the judicial system as an African American. Another experience she and the U.S. Supreme Court justice share, Sears said, is political attack.
Sears was pilloried during the last election by conservatives who labeled her a liberal, activist judge; Thomas has been accused of betraying his African American heritage with his conservative views.
Thomas' attendance at Tuesday's ceremony, Sears said, carried tremendous meaning. "Many Americans have the mistaken belief that if people don't agree with each other on every point, they can't be friends," she said. "I hope it sends a message about civil discourse."
The invitation upset some in Atlanta's civil rights community. Sears has gained wide support during her 13 years on the state Supreme Court bench for opinions that, among other things, overturned Georgia's antisodomy law, use of the electric chair and mandatory life sentences. She is the first black woman to serve as chief justice of any state Supreme Court. But when the Rev. Joseph Lowery, one of the elder statesmen of the civil rights movement, learned Monday that Thomas would be at the ceremony, he decided not to attend.
"We didn't want to be misunderstood as affirming what Clarence Thomas represented," said Lowery, a leader of the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda, an association of civil rights groups. "Clarence Thomas has been one of the most destructive forces for civil rights and poor people on the court since his appointment."
Rep. Tyrone Brooks, president of the Georgia Assn. of Black Elected Officials, made the same decision.
"He is not one of us," Brooks said. "It's not the color of your skin; it's your philosophy."
Thomas, however, did share the stage Tuesday with Andrew Young, 73, the former civil rights leader who went on to become a U.N. ambassador and mayor of Atlanta.
"Andrew Young, on behalf of our generation, I thank you and those of your generation who had the foresight and principles and courage to make it possible for us to be here today ... to witness this historic event," Thomas, 58, said. The two men embraced to applause.
Sears' swearing in, he said, was "a day when my pride runs deep as a human being, as a member of the judiciary and as a Georgian."
