Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Thursday called for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to be impeached after a bombshell report revealed that he’s been taking luxury trips paid for by a Republican megadonor for decades and not disclosing them.
“This is beyond party or partisanship,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “This degree of corruption is shocking — almost cartoonish. Thomas must be impeached.”
The New York City Congress member was reacting to a ProPublica report published Thursday that lays out Thomas’ undisclosed ties to billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow. Thomas “has accepted luxury trips virtually every year” from Crow for more than 20 years without reporting them, ProPublica reported, citing travel records and interviews. Thomas’ failure to disclose the trips appears to violate a law requiring judges, members of Congress and other federal officials to report most gifts, including private jet flights, per ProPublica.
Ocasio-Cortez said that barring dramatic change, this scandal will define the current conservative-led Supreme Court run by Chief Justice John Roberts.
“This is what the Roberts court will be known for: rank corruption, erosion of democracy, and the stripping of human rights,” she tweeted.
It’s not the first time Ocasio-Cortez has said it’s time for Thomas to go. Last year, she called on him to step down or face impeachment over his wife’s involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. She’s also said that he and some of the other conservative Supreme Court justices who struck down federal abortion protections last year should be impeached for “lying under oath” during their confirmation hearings.
Progressive judicial groups are demanding congressional action in response to the report, too. Brian Fallon of Demand Justice called for Senate hearings on Thomas’ “apparent lawbreaking and unethical conduct.” Gabe Roth of Fix the Court said Thomas’ behavior underscores that the Supreme Court “is the least accountable part of our government” and needs stricter gift and travel rules.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee, and its Chairman Dick Durbin, must act immediately to investigate Clarence Thomas’s reported ethical lapses, and move quickly to hold hearings and votes on the Supreme Court Ethics, Transparency, and Recusal Act,” said Meagan Hatcher-Mays of Indivisible, a progressive social movement nonprofit.
“The American people want to believe that the Court is fair, that the justices behave ethically, and that their decisions are free from undue political influence,” she said, “and the only way this is possible is if Congress takes action to hold unethical justices accountable.”
Durbin said in a statement that Thomas’ reported behavior “is simply inconsistent with the ethical standards the American people expect of any public servant, let alone a Justice on the Supreme Court.” But he was vague about what he would do about it.
“The ProPublica report is a call to action, and the Senate Judiciary Committee will act,” he said.
A Durbin spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what action, exactly, the Judiciary Committee chairman planned to take.