- published: 29 Jul 2009
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Orrin Grant Hatch (born March 22, 1934) is the senior United States Senator for Utah and is a member of the Republican Party. Hatch served as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (depending on whether the Republicans controlled the Senate) from 1993 to 2005. He previously served as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee from 1981 to 1987. He currently serves as ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. Hatch also serves on the Board of Directors for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
If re-elected, Hatch will be the most senior Republican Senator, and would be elected President pro tempore of the United States Senate if the Republicans take control of the Senate.
Orrin Grant Hatch was born to Jesse Hatch (1904, Vernal, Utah - 1992, Salt Lake City, Utah) and his wife Helen Frances Hatch (née Kamm; 1906, Pekin, Illinois - 1995, Murray, Utah). Both of English descent. His great-grandfather Jeremiah Hatch (1823, Lincoln, Vermont - 1903, Vernal, Utah) was the founder of Vernal, Utah.
Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court.
Thomas grew up in Savannah, Georgia and was educated at the College of the Holy Cross and at Yale Law School. In 1974, he was appointed an Assistant Attorney General in Missouri and subsequently practiced law there in the private sector. In 1979, he became a legislative assistant to Missouri United States Senator John Danforth and in 1981 was appointed Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. In 1982, President Ronald Reagan appointed Thomas Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); he served in that position until 1990, when President George H. W. Bush nominated him for a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
On July 1, 1991, after 16 months of service as a judge, Thomas was nominated by Bush to fill Marshall's seat on the United States Supreme Court. Thomas's confirmation hearings were bitter and intensely fought, centering on an accusation that he had made unwelcome sexual comments to attorney Anita Hill, a subordinate at the Department of Education and subsequently at the EEOC. The U.S. Senate ultimately confirmed Thomas by a vote of 52–48.