**Clarence Thomas Just Set Civil Rights Back 70 Years (Word Count: 1035)**
**Clarence Thomas Just Set Civil Rights Back 70 Years (Word Count: 1035)** Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is raising eyebrows and getting plenty of eye rolls for his comments on a landmark Court decision that helped invigorate the Civil Rights Movement. On May 23, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the case of *Alexander vs. South Carolina Conference of the NAACP*, reversing a lower court decision that suggested race was a factor in recent congressional redistricting in South Carolina. The Court’s six conservative judges voted together in the majority. The NAACP told *Newsweek* that the decision was a “severe blow” and “gut punch” to democracy. Justice Thomas took time to cosign Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion for the Court, writing a concurring opinion claiming that the courts should have nothing to do with how political districts are designed. “Drawing political districts is a task for politicians, not federal judges,” Thomas wrote. “There are no judicially manageable standards for