WASHINGTON, D.C.--Associate Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court of the United States has been selected to receive the American Enterprise Institute's Francis Boyer Award for 2001. He will deliver the Boyer Lecture at the Institute's annual dinner on Tuesday, February 13, 2001, at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Justice Thomas's nine terms on the Supreme Court have been marked by a clear, consistent, and courageous jurisprudence that has attracted increasing attention and admiration from legal scholars, journalists, and other students of the Court. His contributions have been particularly noteworthy in the areas of federalism, civil rights, criminal justice, and business regulation.

Born in Pin Point, Georgia, in 1948 and raised in Pin Point and nearby Savannah, Clarence Thomas attended Conception Seminary from 1967 to 1968, graduated cum laude from Holy Cross College in 1971, and received his J.D. from the Yale Law School in 1974.

He was admitted to the Missouri Bar in 1974 and served as an assistant attorney general and tax specialist for then-Missouri Attorney General John C. Danforth from 1974 to 1977. Following several years of corporate practice with the Monsanto Company in St. Louis, he came to Washington, D.C., and rejoined then-Senator Danforth, serving as a legislative assistant for energy, public works, and environmental policy matters from 1979 to 1981.

Justice Thomas served in two senior positions in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush: assistant secretary for civil rights of the U.S. Department of Education (1981-1982) and chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1982-1990). He was appointed by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990 and to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991. He took his seat on the Supreme Court on October 23, 1991.

Justice Thomas's wife, Virginia Lamp Thomas, is a senior fellow in government studies at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. He has one child, Jamal Adeen, by a previous marriage. The Thomases are raising their nine-year-old grandnephew, Mark E. Martin, Jr.

The Francis Boyer Award, awarded annually by AEI's Council of Academic Advisers, recognizes individuals who have made exceptional practical or scholarly contributions to improved government policy and social welfare. The award was established in 1977 by SmithKline Beecham in memory of Francis Boyer, a former chief executive of SmithKline and a distinguished business leader for many years.