Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a representative of New York in the U.S. House of Reps., has filed articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito for failure to report gifts from benefactors while serving and refusing to recuse themselves from cases where they had a potential conflict of interest.
“Perhaps most critical to the legitimacy of the institution, these traditional standards require justices to recuse themselves in any proceeding where their impartiality might reasonably be questioned. In other words, if a person could reasonably believe that the legitimacy of a justice’s judgment could be or be perceived to be compromised, due to their personal involvement in the case or its parties, the standard is clear. The Justice must recuse. They are required to recuse,” she said in her speech.
Ocasio Cortez builds upon this duty for Justices to be impartial, bringing in cases where Alito and Thomas took gifts from or held beliefs that could be perceived to conflict with their judgment in upcoming cases.
Justice Alito’s relationship with Paul Singer, a hedge fund billionaire who invited Alito on an Alaskan fishing trip, was referenced later. Alito did not disclose this in any ethics reports and later did not recuse himself when cases were brought involving Singer.
Justice Thomas’ impeachment revolves around his failure to report any financial gifts of any capacity. Thomas has ties with GOP donor Harlan Crow, former chairman and CEO of the Trammell Crow Company, a relationship that has, recently, been questioned.
ProPublica reports that Thomas had accepted gifts from Crow such as flights and vacations without disclosure on official ethics forms.
Additionally, Thomas’ connections with Donald Trump have been called out by critics due to his wife, Ginni Thomas, and her role in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona.
Thomas did recuse himself from a separate case related to the Jan. 6th insurrections in October.
