Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) filed articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, citing their conduct outside the court. It is highly unlikely that the Republican-led House of Representatives will bring the impeachment to the floor for a vote.
In a statement on her site about the filing, Ocasio-Cortez wrote:
The unchecked corruption crisis on the Supreme Court has now spiraled into a Constitutional crisis threatening American democracy writ large. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel 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, the integrity of our democracy, and one of the clearest cases for which the tool of impeachment was designed.
The Constitution of the United States explicitly outlines a higher standard of conduct for the judiciary to meet, far surpassing its existing bars on treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors for all civil officers: the standard of Good Behavior. Judicial ethics and rules, to which even the lowest level judges are held, make those standards clear. The lifetime appointments of Supreme Court justices make enforcement of these standards a solemn responsibility for the protection of our democracy.
Justice Thomas and Alito’s repeated failure over decades to disclose that they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with business before the court is explicitly against the law. And their refusal to recuse from the specific matters and cases before the court in which their benefactors and spouses are implicated represents nothing less than a constitutional crisis. These failures alone would amount to a deep transgression worthy of standard removal in any lower court, and would disqualify any nominee to the highest court from confirmation in the first place.
The filing marked Ocasio-Cortez making good on her promise to file the articles earlier this month following the Supreme Court’s decision to grant presidents total criminal immunity for “official acts.” However Ocasio-Cortez’s allegations were related to behaviors and actions by the Justices outside the court including their refusal to recuse themselves from cases where there was a possible conflict of interest. Another allegation surrounded the massive financial gifts received by Thomas and Alito and the ethical questions involved.
Ocasio-Cortez’s filing comes after two Democratic Senators — Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Ron Wyden of Oregon — called for a special counsel investigation of Alito and Thomas related to “potential violations of ethics, false statement, and tax laws.”
NBC News’ Ryan Nobles reported on MSNBC that Ocasio-Cortez’s filing was a long shot in the GOP-led House:
There is a very slim to almost no chance that the actual articles of impeachment ever even come up for a vote. Ocasio-Cortez does have the ability to to offer what’s called a privileged resolution, which would mean it would force a vote. But the Republicans could immediately just vote to table or move to table the resolution, and that would bring it to an end. But even if for some reason they got through the House of Representatives, let’s say the election goes in the direction of the Democrats in the fall and she brings these up next year, it would require, just like it would in a presidential situation, a two-thirds conviction in the United States Senate in order to remove either of them from their post as a Supreme Court Justice. So it is a long shot in any way, shape or form. This is very much a public relations effort by Ocasio-Cortez to voice the frustrations that Democrats have about the direction of the court and these two justices in particular, and perhaps have that be something that are in the back of the minds of voters as they head to the polls in November.
This story has been updated.
Watch the video above via MSNBC.
