AOC Introduces Impeachment Articles for 2 Supreme Court Justices, Citing 'Unchecked Corruption Crisis'
On July 10, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez formally presented her argument for moving to impeach far-right Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas
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Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas in 2021Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is moving forward with her attempt to impeach two members of the Supreme Court: Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
On Wednesday, July 10, the New York congresswoman, 34, formally presented her argument for moving to oust both Justice Alito, 74, and Justice Thomas, 76, introducing articles of impeachment against both.
In a press release announcing the resolutions, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that the “unchecked corruption crisis on the Supreme Court has now spiraled into a Constitutional crisis threatening American democracy writ large.”
“The Constitution of the United States explicitly outlines a higher standard of conduct for the judiciary to meet, far surpassing its existing bars on treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors for all civil officers: the standard of Good Behavior,” Ocasio-Cortez said in her statement.
She asserted that the far-right justices have instead exhibited a “pattern of refusal to recuse from consequential matters before the court in which they hold widely documented financial and personal entanglements,” adding that it poses a "grave threat" to the justice system's integrity.
The congresswoman also claimed that — aside from remaining on cases with conflicts of interest — the justices' failure to “disclose that they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals” over the decades is “explicitly against the law.”
Both Thomas and Alito’s impeachment articles include a charge of "failure to disclose financial income, gifts and reimbursements, property interests, liabilities, and transactions, among other information."
Additionally, Thomas’ resolution includes charges of “refusal to recuse from matters concerning his spouse’s legal interest in cases before the court” and “refusal to recuse from matters involving his spouse’s financial interest in cases before the court.”
Related: Clarence Thomas' Wife Ginni Accepted Thousands in Payments from Judicial Activist: Report
Alito’s, meanwhile, includes an additional charge of “refusal to recuse from cases in which he had a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party in cases before the court.”
“Given the court’s demonstrated inability to preserve its own legitimate conduct, it is incumbent upon Congress to contain the threat this poses to our democracy and the hundreds of millions of Americans harmed by the crisis of corruption unfurling within the court,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Congress has a legal, moral, and democratic obligation to impeach.”
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Supreme Court Justice Samuel AlitoThomas and Alito, the two oldest and most conservative members of the Supreme Court, were appointed to their roles in 1991 and 2005, respectively.
Each have fallen into controversy in recent years over their financial ties to wealthy GOP donors and their families' alleged acts of partisanship.
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Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee, Rashida Tlaib, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Delia Ramirez, Maxwell Frost, Ilhan Omar, Jamaal Bowman and Jasmine Crockett co-sponsored Ocasio-Cortez's legislation.
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