IN MY ORBIT: Securing Justice Clarence Thomas' Legacy Is Mark Paoletta's Life Mission

The film, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas In His Own Words was released in 2020, and offered a unique glimpse into Justice Clarence Thomas’ life and judicial philosophy. Since his 1991 confirmation hearings, the legacy media has delighted in poisoning the well with lies, smears, and racist tropes about the Justice. With the assistance of documentary filmmaker Michael Pack, Mark Paoletta decided to dig a new well, one that allowed people to draw their conclusions from Justice Thomas’ own life, words, and writings.

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Pack spent 25 hours filming Justice Thomas, and six additional hours with his wife Ginni — a voluminous amount of discourse that was reduced to a two-hour documentary. Sadly, this left a prodigious amount of information on who the Justice is as a person, as well as his writings and viewpoints, unexplored. So, Paoletta decided that a book of the same name was in order.

The book Created Equal: Clarence Thomas In His Own Words was released on June 21, just days before the monumental Supreme Court decisions in New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. Bruen and Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization. Justice Thomas’ influential role as senior justice of the court was brilliantly exhibited in his masterful opinion on Bruen, and his concurrence on Dobbs. Of course, Democrats and the Left used these decisions as an excuse to ramp up their attacks on Thomas’ integrity and fitness. “Uncle Clarence,” trended on Twitter, while white progressives felt emboldened to use the N-Word and other racial slurs against him. The icing on the Left’s insanity cake: Students at George Washington University, where Thomas teaches, attempted to remove him from his adjunct professorship.

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None of these attacks have phased Justice Thomas or his commitment to accurately and precisely interpret the law through an originalist’s lens. Through the film and the book, Paoletta showcases Thomas’ indelible weight of jurisprudence, and how he has shaped the intellectual rigor of the Supreme Court for generations. Thomas has been on the court for 30 years, and is the most prolific of the justices, writing three times the opinions of the other eight. But Paoletta speaks most fondly of Justice Thomas’ humanity and humility as the main driver on why his legacy needs to be protected and promoted.

“You know anyone who ever meets Clarence Thomas would know what I’m talking about, that he’s just the most engaging person to anybody in any walk of life.”

I sat down with Paoletta for an hour, and he stated that he is making it his life’s mission to present a true, candid, and unadorned portrait of this consequential jurist.

It’s a fascinating conversation that gives a glimpse not only into Clarence Thomas the United States Supreme Court Justice, but into Clarence Thomas the man and the humanitarian.

WATCH Paolettta discuss his first impressions of Thomas and how they became friends:

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Discover how Created Equal was given momentum and why Paoletta describes it as “a labor of love”:

Learn why the nation’s Black “leadership” refuses to embrace Thomas’ wisdom and legacy for the Black community.

WATCH Paoletta explains why the legacy media is at odds with Justice Thomas:

Finally, Paoletta encourages Americans, and especially Black Americans, to get to know the impact Clarence Thomas has made on our nation and see his life and legacy through fresh eyes.

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