Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez filed articles of impeachment Wednesday against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.
While the articles are unlikely to pass in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, the move is a rebuke to the two conservative justices, who have recently been accused of improper relationships with wealthy Republican donors.
“The plan by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to refuse to recuse themselves from subsequent cases before the court in which they have widely documented financial and personal entanglements poses a grave threat to the American rule of law, the integrity of our democracy, and one of the clearest for which the impeachment tool was designed,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in a statement announcing the articles of reference.
“Justice Thomas and Alito's decades-long repeated failure to disclose that they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with businesses before the court is expressly against the law. And their refusal to recuse themselves from the specific issues and cases before the court involving their benefactors and their spouses represents nothing less than a constitutional crisis,” he added.
The articles accuse both Thomas and Alito of failing to disclose “income, gifts and compensation, property interests, liabilities and transactions, among other information.”
ProPublica reported on Thomas' relationship with billionaire Harlan Crowe, who lavished the justice with rides in private jets and luxury yachts, expensive vacations, tuition payments and even real estate. Alito similarly accepted trips and other lavish gifts from billionaire Paul Singer and later tried a case involving Singer that came before the court.
Both judges are also accused of “refusing to recuse themselves from cases in which they had personal bias or prejudice regarding a party to cases before the court.” Thomas and Alito have both been accused of violating ethics rules in ruling on cases involving the events of Jan. 6 when questions were raised about their views on the Capitol riot. Two flags associated with sympathy for the “Stop the Steal” movement flew outside Alito's residences — though he blamed his wife for their presence. Thomas' wife, Virginia “Ginny” Thomas, was involved in post-election efforts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to interfere with Electoral College certification.
Ginny Thomas was also on the payroll of conservative dark money groups who brought several cases before the court. This led Thomas to a third article of impeachment “refusing to recuse himself from matters involving his wife's financial interest in matters before the court.”
With no existing, binding ethics code holding Supreme Court justices accountable for their off-court dealings, Democrats have pushing legislation which “would require Supreme Court justices to adopt a code of ethics, establish a mechanism for investigating alleged violations of the code of ethics and other laws, improve disclosure and transparency when a judge is related to a litigant or friend before of the Court, and require judges to explain their acquittal decisions to the public.”
But with a divided Congress and little legislative progress, Ocasio-Cortez wrote that “it is the duty of Congress to limit the threat this poses to our democracy and the hundreds of millions of Americans affected by the corruption crisis unfolding in court. Congress has a legal, moral and democratic obligation to impeach.”
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/aoc-impeachment-supreme-court-alito-and-thomas-1235057253/