Clarence Thomas Admits He Was a Prince Fan in the ’80s During Supreme Court Hearing
oral arguments in a copyright case on Wednesday, setting up a hypothetical in which he was “a Prince fan, which I was in the ’80s.”That comment prompted liberal Justice Elena Kagan to interject, “No longer?”And Thomas responded to laughter: “So only on a Thursday night.” The case involves a photographer who is suing the Andy Warhol Foundation arguing that the artist, who died in 1987, breached her copyright by using her 1981 portrait of the pop star for a series of images Warhol created for Vanity Fair in 1984. (The magazine had paid photographer Lynn Goldsmith $400 to use her portrait as an “artist’s reference.”) The case could have big implications across media about the “fair use” of existing artistic images and works, and what might be owed to copyright owners from later artists who create follow-on works.