New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has introduced articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
This move intensifies her longstanding criticism of the court’s conservative members following recent controversial rulings, including one on presidential immunity.
Ocasio-Cortez issued a statement highlighting what she describes as a “corruption crisis” in the Supreme Court, stating:
“The unchecked corruption crisis on the Supreme Court has now spiraled into a Constitutional crisis threatening American democracy writ large. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito’s pattern of refusal to recuse from consequential matters before the court in which they hold widely documented financial and personal entanglements constitutes a grave threat to American rule of law, the integrity of our democracy, and one of the clearest cases for which the tool of impeachment was designed.”
In her articles of impeachment, Ocasio-Cortez accuses Justice Thomas of engaging in “high crimes and misdemeanors” by failing to disclose the source, description, and value of numerous gifts and real estate property.
Thomas acknowledged in his June financial report that he had “inadvertently omitted” reimbursement for food and lodging expenses related to July 2019 travel.
The articles further allege Thomas’s “refusal to recuse from matters concerning his spouse’s legal and financial interests in cases before the court.”
Justice Alito is similarly accused of “refusal to recuse from cases in which he had a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party,” as well as failing to disclose financial income, gifts, reimbursements, property interests, liabilities, and transactions.
Ocasio-Cortez’s move also follows broader scrutiny of the financial and personal ties of several Supreme Court justices, including Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, and Chief Justice John Roberts, to businesses and groups with cases before the court.
Congress has the authority to remove a federal judge for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors” through a House vote of impeachment and a Senate trial and conviction.
A simple majority vote of 218 in the House is required to adopt the articles of impeachment. Currently, Republicans hold 219 seats and Democrats hold 213.
Historically, only one Supreme Court justice has been impeached. Associate Justice Samuel Chase was impeached by the House in 1804 on charges of arbitrary and oppressive conduct of trials but was acquitted by the Senate in 1805 and remained on the bench.
