AOC files articles of impeachment against Supreme Court's Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has filed articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito over alleged ethics violations and political bias.
"The unchecked corruption crisis on the Supreme Court has now spiraled into a Constitutional crisis threatening American democracy writ large," Ocasio-Cortez said in a release Wednesday.
Ocasio-Cortez' move pitted the celebrity progressive against two of the high court's most conservative − and controversial − justices, not to mention the House's Republican majority. The move, an expression of liberal frustration with ethical and ideological issues on the court, has no chance of success.
“Justice Thomas and Alito’s repeated failure over decades to disclose that they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with business before the court is explicitly against the law," the Bronx Democrat said.
"And their refusal to recuse from the specific matters and cases before the court in which their benefactors and spouses are implicated represents nothing less than a constitutional crisis."
Thomas pulled the court into an ethics firestorm last year after it was revealed he'd failed to disclose millions of dollars in luxury travel and other gifts from billionaire friends.
The impeachment articles focus on missing financial disclosures along with Thomas and Alito's refusal to recuse themselves from multiple high-profile cases. Democrats have accused both justices of being fatally biased in favor of former President Donald Trump in cases related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Ocasio-Cortez' allegations against Thomas focus on his wife, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, who has falsely claimed, including before the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on Congress, that the 2020 election was stolen.
In a highly anticipated decision earlier this month, the Supreme Court ordered a new review of the law behind obstruction charges filed against hundreds of defendants in the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, including Trump.
Last week, two Democratic senators asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate Thomas over for potential federal tax or ethics law violations.
"The public must have confidence that the judiciary and the Department of Justice execute their responsibilities fairly, impartially, and without respect to political expedience or partisan interests," Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a July 3 letter.
Ocasio-Cortez, along with fellow Democrat and ranking member of the House oversight committee Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, has pressured the justices previously over what the lawmakers call the Court's "deepening ethics crisis."
The New York lawmaker announced her intention to file the impeachment articles last week. The move is unlikely to pass a Republican controlled House.
Still, New York University law professor and liberal legal commentator Melissa Murray said in a tweet reacting to the news that the doomed impeachment signals Congress' ability to hold the Court accountable.
"SCOTUS is on the ballot in every Senate race this November," she wrote.
Contributing: Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: AOC files impeachment articles against Supreme Court's Thomas, Alito
