As is often the case in holding prestigious positions, perks of the job are commonplace. The best parking spots, free meals and first-class air travel are just a few. So, what is the best perk for the U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice, Clarence Thomas?

“They invite me to a lot of Corn Husker games,” Thomas joked, “More seriously, when I was working late, I would go to the front of the building and the flood lights would be shining down on the building and you would realize you work for something that is much larger than you are and something that is so depended upon by fellow citizens.”

In front of a jam-packed McFarlin Auditorium, Thomas delivered the Omni Hotels Lecture, the second of eight lectures in the Tate Series, discussing everything from the Supreme Court taking on cases, to addressing the question of whether being in his position is really worth it. Prior to the lecture, more than 800 high school and college students turned up in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center for the forum.

Interviewing Thomas was Theodore B. Olson, Solicitor General of the United States from 2001-2004. Considered one of the nation’s premier appellate and U.S. Supreme Court advocates, Olson has dealt with cases at all levels of state and federal court systems, in both the United States and foreign countries. In 2007, Washingtonian magazine put Olson on the top of the list of the finest lawyers in the nation’s capital.

After visiting with several wounded soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, Thomas began to question his own career, realizing it was considerably easier than the war veterans.

“How do you say to these kids, or to World War II vets, that this is bad what happened to me when they have no arms or legs and are psychologically wounded for life?” Thomas says. “I think I should have a measure of shame if what I went through is ever even put on the same platform as what they went through. But, would it do it again knowing what I know? Absolutely.”

According to university President, R. Gerald Turner, Thomas is a man who “overcame countless obstacles to achieve career in public service” to reach the position he is in today. Upon his appointment by former President Bush, Thomas described the announcement as a “near death experience where you’re watching something happen to you and you have no control over it.”

Growing up in Georgia, Thomas, the first member of his family to attend college, studied at the Conception Seminary College in Missouri before transferring to the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. While at Holy Cross, Thomas earned a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, in English literature in 1971. In 1974, the best-selling author of “My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir,” earned a J.D. degree from Yale Law School, leading to his first assistant attorney general position in Missouri with the Monsanto Company.

In 1981, Thomas joined the Reagan administration as an assistant secretary for civil rights in the U.S. Department of Education, and later as chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It was not until 1991 that George H.W. Bush nominated Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now in his 19th term, Thomas addressed the question of how he feels journalists cover court cases, explaining his disapproval of the coverage, dating back to some of his earliest cases.

“I wrote an opinion about a case in my first term that the press thought I was in favor of beating prisoners,” Thomas says. “How could you come out with that stupidity? You would think they had never read the opinion piece. My problem is that I feel as though when I write an opinion, I have an obligation to get it right. It seems as though when we’re reported on, there’s no obligation to report it right.”

The next Tate Lecture Series will feature Christopher Buckley, a political satirist and author of bestsellers, “Supreme Courtship” and “Thank You For Smoking,” on Nov. 17 as part of the Lacerte Family Lecture.