Liberal Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced articles of impeachment against conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, her office announced on Wednesday.
The effort has no chance of advancing in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, as the House must vote to impeach and the Senate must then vote to convict to remove an official.
Democrats have criticized the court, which holds a 6-3 conservative majority, for years over rulings that have advanced causes popular on the right. These rulings have included rolling back abortion rights, expanding gun rights, rejecting race-conscious collegiate admissions, and ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts in office, favoring Donald Trump.
Ocasio-Cortez stated that Thomas and Alito’s “pattern of refusal to recuse from consequential matters before the court in which they hold widely documented financial and personal entanglements constitutes a grave threat to American rule of law.”
Some congressional Democrats have accused Thomas and Alito of ethical lapses. Activists criticized Thomas after reports revealed he failed to disclose accepting travel and lodging from a wealthy benefactor, and his wife was involved in efforts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss. Thomas claimed he regarded the travel he accepted as personal hospitality not subject to disclosure requirements.
Alito faced criticism after the revelation that flags associated with Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 results were flown outside his homes in Virginia and New Jersey. Alito said his wife, not he, flew the flags.
