Clarence Thomas Joining Upstanding, Heroic Folks Like Putin And Prince Andrew With New Portrait
The official Clarence Thomas portrait is coming!
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Clarence Thomas will become the longest serving justice in Supreme Court history if he holds out until mid-2028. And despite the fervent wishes of conservatives and — probably especially — Thomas’s likely replacement Judge James Ho, the Court’s senior justice seems likely to gun for the record.
And one of the perks enjoyed by folks serving long tenures in important jobs is a fancy oil portrait. So it’s no surprise that Thomas is in the process of having his legacy portrait done. For this task, he’s chosen Igor V. Babailov, an accomplished portrait artist whose past subjects include Thomas’s colleague Samuel Alito, Vladimir Putin, and Prince Andrew.
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Honestly, it’s a little jolting to see any picture of Prince Andrew these days that doesn’t involve Jeffrey Epstein.
For the highest of comedy, check out the George W. Bush, where America’s most destructive nepo baby is posed as the fifth head on Mount Rushmore, juxtaposing the man who said “you can fool all of the people some of the time…” with the man who said, “fool me once shame on you, fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
It’s not like Babailov uniquely seeks out cartoonish villains for his portfolio. For example, his Putin portrait was commissioned as a gift from the Canadian government. But still, it’s a man with a history of capturing some of the world’s most punchable people for posterity.
While we wait on the Thomas portrait, Babailov offers some tantalizing peeks at the process, including some revealing detail work on the bookshelf being composed as a backdrop.
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From the Igor V. Babailov website
Not quite sure what “The Law” is or why it would be neatly held in one relatively thin volume. His autobiography, My Grandfather’s Son, and his hagiography, Created Equal, make appearances. The latter work was a pillar of a public relations blitz from conservatives trying to recuperate Thomas’s reputation and gave birth to a documentary film of the same name funded by right-wing activists. Was FedSoc honcho Leonard Leo at the center of raising over a million and a half from conservative non-profits for this effort? Could Harlan Crow have been involved? You’d better believe it!
The Bible shows up, presumably the Trump version that includes the nation’s founding documents… or at least the parts that the conservative legal movement care about. And finally, Littlest Suffering Souls, a book whose author, Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute, once wrote, “Women should not be able to vote until they are married.”
It’s unclear if other specific titles will be added before the portrait’s completion or if the rest become nondescript “law-looking books.” Any thoughts on what the artist should add? The Bluebook perhaps? Blackstone’s Commentaries? Winds of Winter?
We’ll just have to wait and see!
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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
