Justice Clarence Thomas's reprehensible use of NBA players' race for argument on fair housing

Justice Clarence Thomas has taken Sports Law to a new low.

In his dissent in the Fair Housing case issued Thursday (Texas Dept. of Housing v. Inclusive Communities Project), Thomas argued that African Americans don't need the protection of the law. As proof, he said, just look at the NBA where this minority dominates the court. (Equally insane, he cited how Jews in Poland owned quite a few businesses before the Holocaust.)

If you think this is hyperbole, read on from this excerpt of the dissent:

Racial imbalances do not always disfavor minorities. At various times in history, “racial or ethnic minorities . . . have owned or directed more than half of whole industries in particular nations.” These minorities “have included the Chinese in Malaysia, the Lebanese in West Africa, Greeks in the Ottoman Empire, Britons in Argentina, Belgians in Russia, Jews in Poland, and Spaniards in Chile—among many others.” “In the seventeenth century Ottoman Empire,” this phenomenon was seen in the palace itself, where the “medical staff consisted of 41 Jews and 21 Muslims.” And in our own country, for roughly a quarter-century now, over 70 percent of National Basketball Association players have been black.