AOC Calls on Clarence Thomas to Resign, Pushes Impeachment: ‘Inaction is a Decision to Erode and Further Delegitimize SCOTUS’
Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to resign on Tuesday in the wake of revelations that his wife texted a top Trump official about overturning the 2020 presidential election.
Ocasio-Cortez, a leader of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, also suggested the House of Representatives investigate and possibly impeach Thomas.
“Clarence Thomas should resign,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter.
“If not, his failure to disclose income from right-wing organizations, recuse himself from matters involving his wife, and his vote to block the Jan 6th commission from key information must be investigated and could serve as grounds for impeachment,” she concluded.
Clarence Thomas should resign.
If not, his failure to disclose income from right-wing organizations, recuse himself from matters involving his wife, and his vote to block the Jan 6th commission from key information must be investigated and could serve as grounds for impeachment.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 29, 2022
Ocasio-Cortez is the latest Congressional Democrat to voice concerns over Thomas’ ongoing participation on the Supreme Court, particularly in regard to cases surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“For the good of the court I think he should recuse himself from those cases,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the second-ranking Senate Democrat and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, on Monday.
Durbin argued that Ginni Thomas’s involvement, including attending the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally, surrounding efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election “really creates an obvious conflict” for her husband on related cases.
The Washington Post reported last week on twenty-nine text messages Ginni Thomas sent then Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, including, saying, “Do not concede. It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back.”
Some of Ginni Thomas’s text messages took on conspiratorial tones and hinted at violence toward political opponents:
“Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition. I hope this is true”
In January, when the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s request to prevent the House January 6 committee from obtaining White House records Clarence Thomas was the only justice to dissent – a decision that has since landed him under immense scrutiny.
Ocasio-Cortez followed up her original call for Thomas to resign with an additional statement, saying:
Congress must understand that a failure to hold Clarence Thomas accountable sends a loud, dangerous signal to the full Court – Kavanaugh, Barrett, & the rest – that his acts are fair game.
This is a tipping point. Inaction is a decision to erode and further delegitimize SCOTUS.
Congress must understand that a failure to hold Clarence Thomas accountable sends a loud, dangerous signal to the full Court – Kavanaugh, Barrett, & the rest – that his acts are fair game.
This is a tipping point. Inaction is a decision to erode and further delegitimize SCOTUS.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 29, 2022
