WASHINGTON — Libertarian Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, has introduced articles of impeachment against conservative Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, her office announced Wednesday.
The effort is unlikely to move forward in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, where the process for removing an official requires the House to vote to impeach and then the Senate to vote to convict.
Democrats have long criticized the Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, for issuing decisions that advance causes popular with the right, including rolling back abortion rights, expanding gun rights, refusing to admit students to colleges on the basis of race and ruling in favor of Donald Trump that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for their actions while in office.
Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement that Thomas and Alito’s “inclination to refuse to recuse themselves from important issues before the Court where their financial and personal entanglements are widely documented is a serious threat to the rule of law in the United States.”
Some Democrats in Congress have accused two of the Supreme Court’s most conservative Justices, Thomas and Alito, of ethics violations.
Activists have criticized Mr Thomas for failing to disclose that he received travel and lodging from wealthy donors and following reports that his wife was involved in efforts to overturn Mr Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election. Mr Thomas has said he considers the trips he received to be personal hospitality and not subject to disclosure requirements.
Justice Alito similarly faced criticism after it was revealed that flags linked to Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election had been flown outside his homes in Virginia and New Jersey. Justice Alito has said that it was his wife, not him, who had put up the flags.
