Democrats have for years criticized the court docket, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, for rulings which have superior in style causes on the precise of American politics.
U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez filed articles of impeachment in opposition to conservative Supreme Courtroom Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, accusing them of failing to reveal items and recusing themselves from sure Supreme Courtroom circumstances.
Whereas the hassle to take away the Supreme Courtroom members has little likelihood of advancing within the Republican-controlled Home of Representatives, Ocasio-Cortez’s transfer comes amid years of criticism from her Democratic Celebration of the court docket, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, for rulings that superior in style causes on the precise of American politics.
These embrace curbing abortion rights, increasing gun possession and a current resolution favoring Donald Trump by ruling that former US presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts in workplace.
“Justices Thomas and Alito’s decades-long, repeated failure to speak in confidence to the court docket that they acquired tens of millions of {dollars} in items from businesspeople is explicitly opposite to regulation,” Ocasio-Cortez mentioned in a press release Wednesday.
“And his refusal to recuse himself from particular issues and circumstances earlier than the court docket involving his benefactors and spouses represents nothing lower than a constitutional disaster,” he mentioned.
Thomas’ actions posed “a grave menace to the American rule of regulation, the integrity of our democracy, and one of many clearest circumstances for which the impeachment software was designed,” he added.
Corruption, with out penalties, infects all the things it touches. Congress should train its powers to prosecute somebody.
The corruption of Justices Thomas and Alito is a transparent hazard to our democracy. I proposed impeaching them as a result of it’s the proper factor to do for the American folks. picture.twitter.com/eOscx9avE1
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) July 11, 2024
Thomas has come underneath intense criticism following experiences that he didn’t disclose accepting journey and lodging from a rich benefactor and that his spouse was concerned in efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss.
Thomas has mentioned he considers the journey advantages to be private hospitality, which isn’t topic to disclosure necessities.
Alito additionally confronted criticism after it was revealed that flags related to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election have been flying exterior his properties in Virginia and New Jersey. Alito mentioned it was his spouse, not him, who waved the flags.