<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655431204221,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000177-1b39-d2c7-af7f-5fbf13ff0004","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655431204221,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000177-1b39-d2c7-af7f-5fbf13ff0004","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55431077", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1030236"} }); ","_id":"00000181-6f62-d082-a1ad-7ffbaae20000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedSupreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said he remembers the late Justice Antonin Scalia for the trust they established “from the very beginning,” saying he “never assumed he knew what I should think,” according to recently revealed comments from a new book.
The forthcoming book, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, bears the same title as the award-winning 2020 documentary and is co-authored by Michael Pack, who produced and directed the film, and Mark Paoletta, an attorney who served as assistant counsel to President George H.W. Bush and played a key role in Thomas’s 1991 confirmation to the high court.
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Pack, who shared the new book excerpts with the Washington Examiner from interviews conducted between Nov. 15, 2017, to March 14, 2018, lamented what he described as “racist tropes” Thomas has been subjected to during his tenure on the high court, referencing Thomas’s own recollection of detractors who referred to him as the “shoeshine boy” for Scalia.
“Think about the people who know what I should think. How is that different from any gross stereotype? That you’re black, therefore—. That you’re black, you should—. That you’re black, your opinion should be—. On, and on, and on. [Scalia] never did that. To him, I was entirely free to reach my own conclusions,” Thomas said.
Thomas has faced mounting criticism in recent months after his wife, conservative activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, reemerged in the media limelight in March over her reported support of former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims, which have been rebuked by state elections officials and then-Attorney General William Barr.
Paoletta testified before Congress in April, asserting his belief that “the Left hates Justice Thomas because he is a black conservative who has never bowed to those who demand that he must think a certain way because of the color of his skin.”
When asked for evidence over such claims by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in April, Paoletta referenced one example from a 2014 interview with Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the House Homeland Security and Jan. 6 committees, who had called Thomas an “Uncle Tom.”
Thompson, who is also black, said in the 2014 interview that Thomas “doesn’t like black people, he doesn’t like being black,” claiming it for reasons such as Thomas’s opposition to affirmative action. However, majorities across racial and ethnic groups say universities should prioritize grades and test scores for school admissions above race-based admission standards, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll.
Despite Thomas maintaining his work is kept separate from his wife’s political involvements, Democratic lawmakers have called for his recusal from future election-related court challenges, while other progressives such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) have called for his resignation or impeachment.
Meanwhile, several of his colleagues have endured weeks of protests outside of their homes as the nation waits to see whether a decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturns Roe v. Wade following the May 2 leak of the draft opinion, which signaled a majority on the court was poised to do.
Scalia “never assumed he knew what I should think. He never had a conclusion for me,” Thomas said during interviews for the book.
Pack underscored the pair of justices “disagreed on a lot of things. … They famously did not agree on these administrative law cases.”
“And that’s the point: Justice Scalia never assumed that Justice Thomas was going to agree with him in spite of what the media thought, that Justice Thomas was just in lockstep with Justice Scalia,” Pack added.
The book, which releases on June 21, also sheds light on the special relationship between the two iconic conservative justices and the single thing Scalia could never get Thomas to do. “The one criticism he had was that I would not go hunting with him,” Thomas said.
“If he would try to get me to go hunting, I would ridicule him for killing unarmed animals. I said, ‘How could a guy from New York and New Jersey go out in the woods?’ And he was, oh my goodness, he was into it,” Thomas said of Scalia’s enthusiasm for hunting.
It was during a hunting trip on Feb. 13, 2016, when Scalia was found dead at the age of 79 in his room at Cibolo Creek Ranch in Texas. The justice’s doctor said his suffering from diabetes, coronary artery disease, and obesity were likely factors contributing to his death.
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Thomas was a judge for less than two years when he ascended to the highest court in the land in 1991, when it was led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan.
“That court was together for 11 years. It’s pretty special to me, and Justice Scalia is the special of the specials. I came of age on that court,” Thomas said.
