Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Introduces Articles of Impeachment for Supreme Court Justices Thomas and Alito

Ocasio-Cortez announced her intention to launch an impeachment effort earlier in July following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Trump v. United States.

AP/Mary Altaffer, file
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on July 6, 2022. AP/Mary Altaffer, file

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is introducing articles of impeachment for two conservative Supreme Court justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, making good on the promise she made earlier this month.

“The unchecked corruption crisis on the Supreme Court has now spiraled into a Constitutional crisis threatening American democracy writ large,” she wrote in the announcement released on Wednesday afternoon. 

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s impeachment resolution against Justice Thomas alleges that he failed to disclose financial gifts and neglected to recuse himself from matters concerning his spouse’s legal and financial interests in cases before the court.

She charges Justice Alito with failing to disclose financial gifts, as well as refusing to recuse himself from cases in which he had a personal bias or prejudice.

Such conduct, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez writes, poses a threat to democracy and “warrants impeachment, trial, removal from office, and disqualification from holding future office in the United States of America.” 

The resolution was co-sponsored by several other Democratic House members, including her fellow “squad” members, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Jamal Bowman. 

The announcement comes just a few hours after two Democratic senators called for an investigation into potential federal ethics and tax law violations by Justice Thomas. 

A Judiciary Committee member, Senator Whitehouse, and the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Wyden, issued a letter to the attorney general on Wednesday requesting the launch of an investigation into “evidence of repeated and willful omissions of gifts and income from Justice Thomas’s financial disclosure report.” 

While the Supreme Court justices have yet to comment directly on the allegations, Justices Thomas and Alito have denied similar accusations previously leveled against them. 

Last August, Justice Thomas’s attorney said that “over the course of his 44 years in public service” the justice has “always strived for full transparency and adherence to the law” and has “never accepted a gift from anyone with business before the court.”

His lawyer, Elliot Berke, accused “left wing ‘watchdog’ groups” of “attacking Justice Thomas for alleged ethical violations largely stemming from his relationships with personal friends who happen to be wealthy.” 

Justice Alito has similarly criticized the financial disclosure violation allegations, even writing an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last June rebuffing the charges against him.  

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez announced her intention to pursue the effort at the start of July, after the high court ruling in Trump v. United States determined that core presidential authorities are exempt from criminal prosecution. The ruling was viewed as a win for President Trump, as it will grant him partial immunity while he faces felony charges regarding the 2020 election. 

Soon after, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez took to social media platform X to denounce the Supreme Court’s decision, citing it as “an assault on American democracy.” 

The Supreme Court, she wrote, “has become consumed by a corruption crisis beyond its control.” 

She then voiced her plan to file articles of impeachment, though at the time she did not specify which justices she planned to target. 


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