Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Are “Subject to Corruption”: AOC

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has followed through on her threat to introduce impeachment articles for two Supreme Court justices with an affinity for accepting lavish gifts from Republican billionaires. In a fiery speech on the House floor introducing the articles, Ocasio-Cortez charged Congress with a “constitutional and moral obligation” to hold the nation’s highest court accountable for its careless corruption.

Ocasio-Cortez introduced three articles against Justice Clarence Thomas, which included one count of failing to disclose financial income and gifts and two counts of refusing to recuse himself from matters that concerned his wife’s “legal and financial interest.” A second resolution included counts against Justice Samuel Alito for refusing to recuse himself in cases where he had a personal bias against a party before the court, and one count for refusing to disclose gifts.

“The abuses of power committed by Justice Thomas and Justice Alito are precisely the types of corruption that the Framers [of the Constitution] understood was an existential threat to our democracy,” Ocasio Cortez said, arguing that impeachment is the tool available to bring the court back into balance with the other arms of government. “Corruption without consequence infects all it touches.”

Thomas has effectively admitted to pocketing favors from billionaire real estate developer and Nazi memorabilia collector Harlan Crow by retroactively amending previous financial disclosures that suspiciously omitted the massive gifts. They included private school tuition for his nephew; the renovation of the home where Thomas’s mother still lives; and undisclosed trips on the billionaire’s yacht, private jet, and at his private resort. Alito, meanwhile, has been accused of taking luxury fishing trips with hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, among other improprieties.

“Lastly, we cannot ignore the most important material consequences of this court’s unchecked corruption and its resulting influence: the suffering of the American people,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “We cannot ignore and pretend that this corruption is wholly unrelated to the millions of pregnant Americans now suffering and bleeding out in emergency rooms under the court’s unleashing of extreme abortion bans across the United States, which was a key political priority of these undisclosed benefactors and shadow organizations surrounding Alito and Thomas’s misconduct.

“Nor can we ignore the millions of Americans now suffering hours-long wait times in the hot sun, often without water, just to cast a ballot—also a direct result of this corrupt court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act, allowing the closing of polling sites around the country,” she said.

Earlier this week, Democratic senators also requested the Department of Justice investigate Thomas for alleged criminal wrongdoing, pointing to the justice’s apparent ethics violations and tax omissions.