Leftists have for days hurled racist slurs and insults at Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, but a friend of his says the conservative jurist isn’t interested in their opinions.
Mark Paoletta, co-editor of “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words” (2022), blamed the racially charged invective aimed at Justice Thomas following the Dobbs v. Jackson decision on left-wing racism.
Why target Justice Thomas? “Because the left is racist, Tucker,” said Mr. Paoletta on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Mr. Paoletta, a lawyer who worked on the jurist’s 1991 Supreme Court confirmation process, was identified as a “close friend” of Justice Thomas.
“They expect Clarence Thomas to think the way a black man should, based on the color of his skin, and Clarence Thomas for 30 years, 40 years, has refused to do that, and they want to destroy him,” he said in the interview. “That’s what they’ve been doing in coming after him.”
Mr. Paoletta concluded: “The bottom line is, Clarence Thomas doesn’t care at all what they think.”
Great to be on @TuckerCarlson tonight discussing Left’s racist hatred of Justice Thomas. In a hearing earlier this year @hakeemjeffries asked me for evidence that the Left hates Justice Thomas because he is a black conservative. Here is my answer. https://t.co/hIFAVGBkvr https://t.co/BerVuTog5a
— Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) June 28, 2022
Social media was deluged after Friday’s decision on abortion with anti-Thomas comments, including some calling him the n-word, “coon,” “slave,” “Uncle Tom,” and “Uncle Clarence.”
The court‘s conservative majority overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on a 5-4 vote, sending the issue of abortion access to the states. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. upheld the Mississippi law being challenged, making that issue a 6-3 vote. But he did not vote to strike down Roe outright.
Justice Thomas did not write the majority opinion – Justice Samuel Alito did – but he authored a concurring opinion calling for reconsidering other decisions that hinged on “substantive due process,” such as the 2015 ruling striking down laws against same-sex marriage.
Twitter allowed “Uncle Clarence” to trend over the weekend, but also suspended the account of a liberal commentator who called Justice Thomas the n-word.
Those blasting the racist vitriol included Black commentators such as Anthony B. Bradley, Adam B. Coleman, Barrington Martin II, Dumisani Washington, and those on the Free Black Thought account.
“6-3 Opinion. Liberals/Democrats: It’s the Black man’s fault,” tweeted Mr. Martin.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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