That's the question D.C. Circuit Judge Larry Silberman told Clarence Thomas he should ask himself in every case he had to decide. Thomas considered this to be "the best piece of advice I received, one that became central to my approach to judging." In 10 words, Justice Thomas writes, Silberman "did more to give me a judicial philosophy than any of the futile academic debates about which I'd heard far too much while preparing for my confirmation hearings." (Page 204 of "My Grandfather's Son.")
I think Silberman's advice is great, but I'm really interested in the phrase "any of the futile academic debates." I don't think that implies that there were some non-futile academic debates. I think Thomas has let slip that he regards all the academic debates as futile.
ADDED: This is related, from page 238. Thomas asserts that at the time of his confirmation he had no opinion about whether Roe v. Wade was correctly decided:
I think Silberman's advice is great, but I'm really interested in the phrase "any of the futile academic debates." I don't think that implies that there were some non-futile academic debates. I think Thomas has let slip that he regards all the academic debates as futile.
ADDED: This is related, from page 238. Thomas asserts that at the time of his confirmation he had no opinion about whether Roe v. Wade was correctly decided:
Until he's gone through that deliberative process on a case-by-case basis, an open-minded judge can't predict how he will rule in any given situation. As for the matter of my judicial philosophy, I didn't have one — and I didn't want one. A philosophy that is imposed from without instead of arising organically from day-to-day engagement with the law isn't worth having. Such a philosophy runs the risk of becoming an ideology, and I'd spent much of my adult life shying away from abstract ideological theories that served only to obscure the reality of life as it's lived.By the way, I believe him when he says that he never discussed Roe v. Wade. He says he was never "especially interested in the subject of abortion." (Page 223.) He never even read Roe until he was preparing for the Supreme Court confirmation hearings. "In law school I'd been a self-styled 'lazy-libertarian' who saw abortion as a purely personal matter." After law school, he "remained agnostic on the matter." It was only when he actually had to decide an abortion case as a Supreme Court Justice that he ascertained that Roe was wrongly decided and should be overruled — he says.