Senate Democrat urges Roberts to pressure Alito, Thomas on recusals

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Thursday urging him to use his authority to pressure Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas to recuse themselves from cases related to former President Trump.

“Your position gives you considerable moral and persuasive authority to establish standards of conduct and to hold your colleagues to them,” the senators wrote. “I urge you to use that authority to persuade Justices Thomas and Alito to recuse themselves in these cases — crucial to our democracy and the rule of law — where their ‘impartiality may legitimately be called into question.'”

Blumenthal wrote the letter the day after Justice Alito refused to recuse himself from a Trump-related case after Senate Democrats expressed concerns about his impartiality because two flags associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” protests flew at his Virginia home and New Jersey beach house.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Alito argued that the flag incident does not meet the disqualification test under the Code of Judicial Conduct and maintained that he had “nothing to do with” flying an upside-down flag on his property following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

He also said he had “no involvement whatsoever in the decision” to fly the “Appeal to Heaven” flag at the beach house, telling Durbin that it was his wife who had put up both controversial flags.

“My wife likes to fly the flag,” he said. “I don’t.”

Blumenthal also noted that Thomas has refused to recuse himself from Trump-related litigation, even though his wife, Ginny, is a pro-Trump political activist and supports efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“Justice Thomas did not resign,” the senator noted. “He did not explain his decision, and the court’s ethical failings have only grown.”

Blumenthal said Roberts should use his judgeship’s powers to order the draft decision and assign circuit court judges to the case, forcing Alito and Roberts to recuse themselves from the case.

“If Justices Alito and Thomas do not recuse themselves from United States v. Trump and other cases related to January 6th and the ‘Stop the Steal’ protests, we urge them not to issue opinions or appoint circuit judges,” Blumenthal wrote.

He warned that allowing the Supreme Court to hear a case that many Democrats fear is biased in favor of President Trump and his allies, who have sought to halt the peaceful transition of power in January 2021, would further erode the court’s credibility.

“When a justice openly flies a flag closely associated with a political candidate and then fails to recuse himself after that candidate becomes a party to a litigation, it leads to a precipitous decline in public confidence in the Supreme Court,” Blumenthal wrote.

“And every time you ask that justice to write an opinion for the court, particularly in a case about apportionment, you are condoning that justice’s ethical lapses,” he argued. “You are not just a bystander to your colleagues’ misconduct, you are a justifier for their conduct.”