Democrats for years have criticised the court docket, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, over rulings which have superior causes common on the precise in US politics.
US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has launched articles of impeachment towards conservative US Supreme Courtroom Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, accusing them of failing to reveal presents and to recuse themselves from sure instances earlier than the Supreme Courtroom.
Whereas the try to impeach members of the Supreme Courtroom stands little probability of advancing within the Republican-controlled Home of Representatives, the transfer by Ocasio-Cortez comes amid years of criticism by her Democratic Occasion of the court docket – which has a 6-3 conservative majority – over rulings that superior causes common on the precise of US politics.
These embrace rolling again abortion rights, increasing gun possession and a current resolution that favoured Donald Trump in ruling that former US presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts in workplace.
“Justice Thomas and Alito’s repeated failure over a long time to reveal that they obtained hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in presents from people with enterprise earlier than the court docket is explicitly towards the regulation,” Ocasio-Cortez stated in an announcement on Wednesday.
“And their refusal to recuse from the particular issues and instances earlier than the court docket through which their benefactors and spouses are implicated represents nothing lower than a constitutional disaster,” she stated.
Thomas’s actions posed “a grave menace to American rule of regulation, the integrity of our democracy and one of many clearest instances for which the device of impeachment was designed,” she added.
Corruption, with out consequence, infects all it touches. Congress should train its powers to question.
The corruption of Justices Thomas & Alito constitutes a transparent hazard to our democracy. I moved to question them as a result of it’s the proper factor to do for the American individuals. pic.twitter.com/eOscx9avE1
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) July 11, 2024
Thomas has come beneath intense criticism following experiences that he didn’t disclose accepting journey and lodging from a rich benefactor and that his spouse was concerned in efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss.
Thomas has stated that he regarded the journey advantages as private hospitality, which aren’t topic to disclosure necessities.
Alito equally confronted criticism after the revelation that flags related to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election had been flown outdoors his houses in Virginia and New Jersey. Alito stated it was his spouse, not him, who flew the flags.