Twelve faculty members and 50 law students to date have signed a petition protesting the selection of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as the commencement speaker at the University of Georgia law school.

The protest is over Thomas' role in the Bush v. Gore 2000 election decision, and the speaker selection process. The leader of the protest is law professor Donald Wilkes, who says he will give a speech on another part of the campus at the same time on the need to protect civil liberties.

Wilkes described the number of people who've signed the anti-Thomas petition as "roughly one-third of the law school faculty and includes the only tenured black professor at the law school.

"The decision to invite Justice Thomas is appalling, unwise and perverse - the embodiment of bad judgment," Wilkes told CNSNews.com.

The petition argued the selection process was "under inclusive, clandestine and divisive," and claimed the decision to have Thomas deliver commencement remarks was "divisive and disrespectful to a substantial number of students and their families."

[link via Instapundit]