Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) introduced articles of impeachment on Wednesday against United States Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
The first impeachment resolution against Justice Thomas includes the failure to disclose financial income, gifts, and reimbursements. Additionally, Thomas’s refusal to recuse from matters concerning his spouse’s legal and economic interests in cases before the court is in question. Specifically, the issue is that Thomas accepted travel and lodging from a wealthy benefactor GOP donor, Harlan Crow. Last year, news also broke that Thomas had secretly attended donor events for a libertarian political organization founded by the billionaire Koch brothers. Moreover, the resolution focuses on the reported evidence that Thomas’s wife was involved in efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss.
The second impeachment resolution against Justice Alito pertains to his refusal to recuse from cases in which he may have had a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party in cases before the court. The bias in question was from incidents when Justice Alito allowed an “appeal to heaven flag” and an upside-down American flag to be flown outside his residence for several days. At the time, an upside-down American flag was widely understood to be an expression of support for the efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It was a symbol displayed by those who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In a press release, Representative Ocasio-Cortez said:
Justice Thomas and Alito’s repeated failure over decades to disclose that they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with business before the court is explicitly against the law…these failures alone would amount to a profound transgression worthy of standard removal in any lower court and would disqualify any nominee to the highest court from confirmation in the first place.
The US Supreme Court did adopt a guide of conduct in November 2023; however, the question remains as to who has the authority to enforce it besides the justices themselves.
The Constitution gives Congress the authority to remove justices for “‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” by a vote of impeachment by the House of Representatives and a trial and conviction by the Senate.
House Representatives Barbara Lee (CA), Rashida Tlaib (MI), Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ), Delia Ramirez (IL), Maxwell Frost (FL), Ilhan Omar (MN), Jamaal Bowman (NY), and Jasmine Crockett (TX) are co-sponsors of the proposed impeachments, however with the current Republican House majority, the resolutions are unlikely to pass.
