Impeachment has no realistic chance of advancing in the Republican-controlled House, but it speaks to a motivating issue for Democrats: the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority.
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Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, at the Capitol last month.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, introduced articles of impeachment on Wednesday against Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., accusing them of improperly failing to disclose gifts from wealthy benefactors and to recuse themselves from certain cases before the Supreme Court.
There is no realistic chance of impeachment advancing in the Republican-controlled House. But some Democrats say their party must make a case against the justices in the court of public opinion — especially since the Supreme Court ruled this month that presidents have substantial immunity from prosecution, upending criminal cases against former President Donald J. Trump.
Some Democrats also hope that concern about the Supreme Court could be a motivating issue for voters, as a conservative supermajority cemented by Mr. Trump’s three appointments to the court has reshaped U.S. law on major issues including abortion, presidential power and government regulations.
The articles of impeachment contend, among other allegations, that Justices Alito and Thomas were obligated to recuse themselves from cases related to Mr. Trump’s and his allies’ efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election — Justice Thomas because his wife participated in those efforts and Justice Alito because flags associated with the efforts flew outside Justice Alito’s homes.
“The unchecked corruption crisis on the Supreme Court has now spiraled into a constitutional crisis threatening American democracy writ large,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement. She added that the justices’ actions posed “a grave threat to American rule of law, the integrity of our democracy and one of the clearest cases for which the tool of impeachment was designed.”
The Supreme Court’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Justices Thomas and Alito.
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Source: nytimes.com
