Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Thursday referred to as for Supreme Courtroom Justice Clarence Thomas to be impeached after a bombshell report revealed that he’s been taking luxurious journeys paid for by a Republican megadonor for many years and never disclosing them.
“That is past occasion or partisanship,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “This diploma of corruption is stunning — nearly cartoonish. Thomas have to be impeached.”
The New York Metropolis Congress member was reacting to a ProPublica report printed Thursday that lays out Thomas’ undisclosed ties to billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow. Thomas “has accepted luxurious journeys nearly yearly” from Crow for greater than 20 years with out reporting them, ProPublica reported, citing journey information and interviews. Thomas’ failure to reveal the journeys seems to violate a legislation requiring judges, members of Congress and different federal officers to report most presents, together with personal jet flights, per ProPublica.
Ocasio-Cortez mentioned that barring dramatic change, this scandal will outline the present conservative-led Supreme Courtroom run by Chief Justice John Roberts.
“That is what the Roberts court docket might be identified for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights,” she tweeted.
It’s not the primary time Ocasio-Cortez has mentioned it’s time for Thomas to go. Final yr, she referred to as on him to step down or face impeachment over his spouse’s involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. She’s additionally mentioned that he and a few of the different conservative Supreme Courtroom justices who struck down federal abortion protections final yr must be impeached for “mendacity beneath oath” throughout their affirmation hearings.
Progressive judicial teams are demanding congressional motion in response to the report, too. Brian Fallon of Demand Justice referred to as for Senate hearings on Thomas’ “obvious lawbreaking and unethical conduct.” Gabe Roth of Repair the Courtroom mentioned Thomas’ habits underscores that the Supreme Courtroom “is the least accountable a part of our authorities” and desires stricter reward and journey guidelines.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee, and its Chairman Dick Durbin, should act instantly to research Clarence Thomas’s reported moral lapses, and transfer rapidly to carry hearings and votes on the Supreme Courtroom Ethics, Transparency, and Recusal Act,” mentioned Meagan Hatcher-Mays of Indivisible, a progressive social motion nonprofit.
“The American folks need to imagine that the Courtroom is truthful, that the justices behave ethically, and that their choices are free from undue political affect,” she mentioned, “and the one approach that is doable is that if Congress takes motion to carry unethical justices accountable.”
Durbin mentioned in an announcement that Thomas’ reported habits “is just inconsistent with the moral requirements the American folks count on of any public servant, not to mention a Justice on the Supreme Courtroom.” However he was obscure about what he would do about it.
“The ProPublica report is a name to motion, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will act,” he mentioned.
A Durbin spokeswoman didn't instantly reply to a request for touch upon what motion, precisely, the Judiciary Committee chairman deliberate to take.
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