Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduced articles of impeachment Wednesday against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito over their refusal to recuse themselves from certain cases.
“Absent resignation, they must be removed,” Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor, arguing that the two justices pose a threat to the rule of law.
“Because of Alito’s and Thomas’s refusals to recuse, everyday Americans cannot, should not and will not believe that these justices, and consequently the court they serve, is working to uphold the Constitution and put the country ahead of their own individual self-interests,” she said Wednesday night.
“Reasonable Americans will and do believe that Justices Thomas and Alito are prone and subject to corruption, that the institution failing to punish them is broken and that consequently their impeachment is a constitutional imperative and our congressional duty,” she added.
Ocasio-Cortez said both justices had demonstrated a “yearslong pattern of misconduct and failure to recuse in cases bearing their clear personal and financial involvement.”
That, she said, “represents an abuse of power and threat to our democracy, fundamentally incompatible with continued service on our nation’s highest court.”
The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the introduction of impeachment articles.
The resolutions were co-sponsored by Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y.
The first charge centers on two controversial flags that were flown outside Alito’s homes — an upside-down American flag and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag. Both have been carried in recent years by members of the “Stop the Steal” movement, whose supporters claim President Joe Biden did not lawfully win the 2020 presidential election. Alito has said it was his wife’s decision to fly the flags.
Alito declined to recuse himself from two Trump-related cases that were pending before the court when the existence of the flags was first reported.
The second charge against Alito appears to refer to his relationship with hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, who ProPublica reported took Alito on a fishing trip to Alaska that Alito did not disclose in ethics reports. Alito later did not recuse himself from cases involving Singer.
Thomas’ impeachment article centers on his “failure to disclose financial income, gifts and reimbursements, property interests, liabilities, and transactions, among other information, refusal to recuse from matters concerning his spouse’s legal interest in cases before the court [and] refusal to recuse from matters involving his spouse’s financial interest in cases before the court.”
Thomas’ relationship with GOP mega-donor Harlan Crow has been the subject of intense scrutiny for months.
Extensive reporting last year by ProPublica showed that Thomas has accepted lavish gifts like vacations and flights without disclosing them on official ethics forms.
Thomas has also drawn ire from critics over the conservative political activism of his wife, Ginni Thomas, particularly her role in former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Arizona.
In the aftermath of the election, Ginni Thomas also sent messages urging then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to stand with Trump. She later said she regretted sending those texts.
Still, Democrats called on Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from two cases involving Trump: a constitutional challenge to his re-election candidacy and his presidential immunity claims. Thomas did not recuse himself from either case, both wins for Trump.
He did recuse himself from a separate Jan. 6-related case in October.
