Clarence Thomas was sworn in Wednesday as the nation's 106th justice of the Supreme Court, taking his judicial oath in a highly unusual private and unannounced ceremony at the court.
Thomas, 43, became a justice of the high court with lifetime tenure at 10:05 a.m. MDT, when he took his oath of office from Chief Justice William Rehnquist, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Toni House.The ceremony, conducted in Rehnquist's conference room, was attended by Thomas's wife, Virginia, who held the Bible, and Sen. John Danforth, R-Mo., Thomas's former boss.
Thomas becomes the second black ever to sit on the high court. He replaces Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice, who announced his retirement in June.
Thomas, confirmed by the Senate last week by a 52-48 vote in one of the most contentious and lurid confirmation processes in the nation's history, had taken his constitutional oath at the White House last Friday.
But without the judicial oath, Thomas was not yet officially a member of the court. He becomes the youngest member of the court.
Thomas had been scheduled to take his judicial oath at a public ceremony in the court Nov. 1, but the swearing-in was moved up at Thomas's request so he could begin working immediately, said House.
The private swearing-in follows extraordinary confirmation hearings at which Thomas was accused of sexually harassing Anita Hill, a woman he supervised while chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the Reagan administration.