AOC Gonna Impeach Justices Thomas And Alito, For Torts Of Shameless, Disgraceful
VERGOGGGGNA.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez yesterday filed articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to call attention to their complete indifference to judicial ethics and their refusal to recuse themselves from hearing cases in which they either have friends with interests at stake or in which they (or their spouses) have clearly taken a political stance.
Both justices took oaths to be impartial, but then refused to take even the most basic action to comply with ethical norms by recusing themselves. Chief Justice John Roberts hasn’t seen fit to enforce those norms by taking the rogue justices by the ear and explaining why their behavior is unacceptable, either. And they certainly won’t resign. Therefore, Ocasio-Cortez argued, impeachment is the only option left to Congress, which is still allegedly an equal branch of government.
"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.
And look, here’s video of her floor speech:
Yes, of course Ocasio-Cortez knows full well that as long as Republicans hold the House, the effort to bring some accountability to the Court will go nowhere. Hell, that’s half her point: The entire Republican Party is now happy to look away from the sleaziest behavior by its most powerful figures, both elected and not, even those who are officially supposed to be neutral arbiters of the law, as long as it means the GOP gets the political outcomes it wants. By any means necessary, as some guy said long ago.
Oh, right, the other half of her point: No one should be above the law. Even the most powerful judges have to follow the rules, and if they don’t, they must be held accountable if our Constitution is going to work.
Ocasio-Cortez’s impeachment filing follows up on a request from Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) for the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate Thomas’s acceptance of millions of dollars worth of gifts from big Republican donors who have business before the Court, another move that could be dismissed as “political theater” but goddamn well shouldn’t be laughed off in any democracy that claims to hold its leaders responsible under the law.
These articles of impeachment are in a whole different universe than the Republican-led “impeachment” efforts against President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, which pretended that policy disagreements and disinformation rose to the level of misuse of office. Instead, Ocasio-Cortez identifies very specific “high crimes and misdemeanors” by each of the crimey justices.
There are three articles of impeachment against Thomas; Article I, the lengthiest, covers Thomas’s failure to disclose all of the gifts lavished upon him by billionaire benefactors: the forgiven loan for a luxury RV, all the travel on yachts and private jets, the rent-free home for his mother, the private school tuition for the great nephew Thomas raised as a son — most of which Thomas failed to report as legally required, until after the largesse was revealed by journalists. Thomas failed to recuse himself from any of the cases involving his benefactors’ political groups, too.
The other articles involve Thomas’s failure to recuse himself from cases in which his wife Ginny had interests. Article II specifies her paid work for an outfit founded by the Thomases’ good personal friend, travel arranger, son-educator, and mother-houser Harlan Crow, and also “consulting” income from a group founded by Federalist Society honcho Leonard Leo. Article III focuses on Ginny Thomas’s legal entanglement with the January 6 coup attempt, for which Justice Thomas should have recused himself from all cases related to the foiled insurrection. Just to show how fair-minded she is, AOC didn’t even call for either Thomas to be imprisoned on a barge and tried in Gitmo.
Alito’s impeachment case has just two articles. The first involves his failure to recuse from “cases in which he had a personal bias or appearance of prejudice,” which is also about the January 6 cases. Like the Thomas articles, it notes Alito’s oath of office specifying that he promised to “faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon [him] as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court,” which isn’t especially consistent with hanging up treason flags at your homes in support of the insurrection.
Alito gets his own article of impeachment for failure to disclose gifts from rich donors, specifically that fun Alaska fishing trip that Alito claimed wasn’t unethical because the private jet he rode in would have just flown with an empty seat if he hadn’t gone along, you see. Alito too failed to recuse himself from cases involving the donor, in whose favor he ruled.
And here we are, with the letter from the senators and AOC’s impeachment articles, which may not go anywhere just yet. But both examples still matter, as unambiguous statements that the rule of law still matters, and that one party is willing to stand up and say so.
[NBC News / Law Dork / Thomas articles of impeachment / Alito articles of impeachment]
Yr Wonkette is funded entirely by reader donations. If you can, please become a paid subscriber, or if a one-time donation is best for you, then who are we to judge? We will impartially take your money!
If oaths mean anything anymore, the justices who said in their nomination hearings that Roe was “settled law” and then voted to overturn it in Dobbs should be impeached for that as well.
THANK YOU, AOC!
About GD time someone does something.
We need to keep this corruption issue front and center - this is absolutely unacceptable.