Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized the Supreme Court’s current ethical standards amid media scrutiny over the gifts that Justices Thomas, Alito and others received while in office.
“It’s the highest court in the country, but it has the lowest ethical standards,” Raskin told MSNBC host Chris Hayes in an interview Tuesday.
Raskin said Supreme Court justices are “the only government officials in the nation who are not subject to a binding code of ethics.”
“There is no process for holding them accountable,” Raskin added. Regarding reports of large donations to Justices Thomas and Alito, Raskin said, “It’s outrageous for us to even consider it.”
Clarence Thomas formally reports 2019 trip paid for by friend and Republican donor Harlan Crow
Representatives Jamie Raskin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the Supreme Court’s current ethical standards amid intense media scrutiny over the gifts that Justices Thomas, Alito and others received during their tenure. (MSNBC)
Raskin’s allegations come after he and Ocasio-Cortez, who serves on the House Oversight Committee, announced this week that they are seeking to introduce legislation to hold Supreme Court justices accountable for ethics violations.
“Congressman Raskin and I, along with every other member of Congress, will be introducing legislation shortly to apply the same $50 gift rule to the Supreme Court that Rep. Raskin and I are subject to,” Ocasio-Cortez told Hayes.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, facing increasing pressure from the media and lawmakers over his ethics, has acknowledged a previously unreported overseas trip paid for by his friend, conservative businessman Harlan Crow.
Alito has also faced media scrutiny and has been accused of misconduct by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and several Democratic senators have called for him to be removed from cases related to the 2020 election, including the issue of Trump’s immunity, due to his revelations of misconduct. upside down american flag After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, a “Claim to Heaven” flag was hung at his home.
More than 100 former attorneys for Thomas sign open letter defending his integrity and independence
Senator Whitehouse revisited the ethics concerns he had about Justice Alito last year amid the ongoing backlash over the flag flying at Justice Alito’s home. (Getty Images)
In her interview with Hayes, Ocasio-Cortez mocked the Supreme Court’s independence, calling it a “Scouts Promise” approach to accountability for the nation’s highest court.
“Having any of our peer institutions completely unaccountable to the others paves the way for authoritarianism, tyranny and abuse of power in the United States and is structurally completely unsustainable,” she said.
“The question isn’t whether Congress has jurisdiction or authority over the Supreme Court,” Ocasio-Cortez continued, “but what power it will exercise to rein in a fundamentally unaccountable and lawless Court.”
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Fox News’ Brianna Herlihy, Bill Mears, Shannon Bream and Julia Johnson contributed to this report.
