WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 19, 2024) – Free Speech For People released a letter today to House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan and Ranking Member Jerry Nadler, urging them to support Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s impeachment articles against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito for abusing their powers to protect and advance their own personal and familial interests. Representative Ocasio-Cortez cited Article II of the U.S. Constitution when introducing articles of impeachment in July, arguing that Thomas and Alito’s actions constitute “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” taken at the expense of the American people and the judiciary itself.

The Framers of our Constitution called on Congress specifically to hold judicial officers, including Supreme Court justices, accountable for high crimes and misdemeanors that compromise the integrity of the Court,” the letter reads. “Given the compelling evidence against Justice Thomas and Justice Alito for repeated transgressions fitting this description, it is imperative that the House Judiciary Committee promptly begin impeachment proceedings against them.

Additional organizations that have endorsed Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s articles of impeachment include Common Defense, Court Accountability Action, End Citizens United / Let America Vote Action Fund, Enough of Gun Violence, Get Free, Indivisible, MoveOn, NextGen America, Our Revolution, People’s Parity Project, People Power United, Public Wise, Revolving Door Project, Take Back the Court Action Fund, UltraViolet, Women’s March, and The Workers Circle.

An April 2023 report from ProPublica found that Justice Thomas has accepted and failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts and other financial benefits from Harlan Crow, a Republican billionaire and activist whose organizations regularly file briefs in the Supreme Court advocating positions that Thomas reliably adopts.

Thomas also failed to recuse himself in cases regarding attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. His wife, Ginni Thomas, has had a significant interest in the outcome of these challenges. Ginni Thomas was intimately involved in the Stop the Steal movement, sending numerous text messages to former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in an attempt to disregard the results of the November 2020 presidential election and keep Trump in power.

Justice Alito displayed an upside-down American flag, a symbol of the January 6th insurrection and the “Stop the Steal” movement, outside his home after the 2020 election. Another Alito property flew an “Appeal to Heaven” flag, a symbol of Christian nationalism, in 2023. Alito has also accepted and failed to disclose gifts from conservative benefactors.

Neither Justice Thomas nor Justice Alito recused themselves from cases before the Court related to the 2020 presidential election and to the January 6th insurrection, including the recent unprecedented ruling in Trump v. U.S. that gave the former president partial immunity for crimes he committed while serving in the Oval Office.

 

Read the full letter here.

See organizations that have endorsed articles of impeachment against Justice Thomas (H.Res. 1353) and Alito (H.Res 1354) here.