In this episode, Liz gets a phone call from a woman identifying herself as Ginni Thomas, demanding that Liz should apologize for comments Liz made on a TV morning show impugning Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's jurisprudence and Mrs. Thomas's conflicts of interests. As Liz briefly references, the idea that Mrs. Thomas might call a person she perceives as having insulted her husband in this way is grounded in a real-life incident: in October 2010, nineteen years after Anita Hill testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding her allegations of sexual harassment against then-nominee for the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas, Ginni Thomas left an early-morning voice mail message on Dr. Hill's office phone at Brandeis University, where Hill is a professor. The message said: "Good morning, Anita Hill. It's Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology sometime and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray on this, and hope that one day you will help us understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day." Like Liz Reddick, Dr. Hill was initially unsure whether this person was the real Ginni Thomas or if the call was some kind of prank, so she contacted the Brandeis campus police, which contacted the FBI. Ginni Thomas acknowledged publicly that the call had indeed been from her and that she meant for it to be taken as an "olive branch." But the New York Times reported that Hill responded that "she had testified truthfully about her experiences with the future Justice Thomas and that she had nothing to apologize for. 'I appreciate that no offense was intended, but she can't ask for an apology without suggesting that I did something wrong, and that is offensive.'"
