Congress must impeach Justice Thomas. In his position as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, he has, over the course of many years, abused his power to protect and advance his own personal interests and those of his wife and his friends. Justice Thomas has accepted and failed to disclose his receipt of lavish gifts and a beneficial real estate dealing, and refused to recuse himself from matters before the Court in which his wife had an interest. In so doing, he has undermined the impartiality and legitimacy of the Court and violated the public’s trust. In the face of this crisis, the House Judiciary Committee must now do its duty and begin impeachment proceedings against Justice Thomas.

Justice Thomas Accepted and Failed to Disclose Gifts

Over the course of at least fifteen years, Justice Thomas and his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, have received at least hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gifts from Harlan Crow, a billionaire real estate developer who is linked to several organizations that have filed amicus briefs before the Supreme Court, and whose positions Justice Thomas regularly adopts.

Justice Thomas has an ethical and legal obligation to disclose these gifts. Under 5 U.S.C. §§ 13103 and 13104, judicial officers—including Supreme Court Justices—must file annual reports disclosing financial income, gifts and reimbursements, property interests, liabilities, transactions, and other information.

Despite these requirements, Justice Thomas never disclosed a vast array of lavish gifts from Mr. Crow, including extravagant  vacations, free accommodation and food at a luxury resort, private flights, private school tuition payments, a suspiciously profitable real estate transaction, and free rent for his mother. These gifts came to light only through the diligent work of journalists; he has yet to provide a full accounting of the gifts he received from Mr. Crow.

The law requires disclosure of all relevant gifts, regardless of whether the gift giver has business before the Court. However, here, Justice Thomas’s violations are particularly egregious because of Mr. Crow’s myriad interests before the Court, represented via organizations with which Mr. Crow has close ties. These organizations include the American Enterprise Institute, the National Multifamily Housing Council, the Club for Growth Institute, and the Hoover Institute—all of which have submitted amicus briefs before the Court while Mr. Crow or his associate has been on their boards and Justice Thomas has served on the Court.

Justice Thomas Refused to Recuse From Matters Concerning Ms. Thomas’s Legal Interests

Justice Thomas should have, but refused, to recuse himself from proceedings concerning challenges to the outcome of the 2020 presidential election because his spouse, Ginni Thomas, had significant interest in the outcome of these challenges.

Under 28 U.S.C. § 455, “[a]n justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” Ms. Thomas’s involvement in Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, up to and including her support of the January 6 insurrection, reasonably calls Justice Thomas’s impartiality into question.

Ms. Thomas participated in political and legal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In addition to lobbying state lawmakers to overturn the election, she provided legal and political advice to Mr. Trump and to his White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. In her texts with Mr. Meadows, she exchanged false election theories and used inflammatory rhetoric in urging him to aggressively pursue avenues to overturn the election. When the legal efforts failed, Ms. Thomas attended the January 6, 2021 “Stop the Steal” rally.

Though Ms. Thomas has claimed that she did not speak about her involvement in these efforts with Justice Thomas, her text messages suggest otherwise. Moreover, Ms. Thomas publicly spoke and acted in support of efforts to unlawfully overturn the election. Justice Thomas therefore had or should have had ample knowledge of her interest in cases related to efforts to overturn the election and to the insurrection, and recused himself from these cases. He failed to do so.

Justice Thomas dissented from the Court’s refusal to hear factually baseless and legally frivolous cases to throw out the lawful ballots of thousands of Pennsylvania voters. He also was the only justice to vote to grant Mr. Trump’s application to block the National Archives from releasing records concerning his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election to the House Selection Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

Justice Thomas Refused to Recuse From Matters Concerning Ms. Thomas’s Financial Interests

Justice Thomas has also refused to recuse himself from cases in which his wife has a financial interest. In addition to his gifts to the Thomases, Harlan Crow in 2009 anonymously contributed $500,000 to an organization founded by Ms. Thomas that paid Ms. Thomas a $120,000 salary.

Justice Thomas also failed to recuse himself from matters relating to tens of thousands of dollars paid to Ms. Thomas at the direction of Leonard Leo, the senior official of the Federalist Society who has been credited more than any other person with helping to shape the far right conservative Supreme Court majority of which Justice Thomas is a leading member.   Mr. Leo arranged for the Judicial Education Project to pay Ms. Thomas at least $80,000 in consulting fees via an intermediary, while specifically directing that Ms. Thomas’s name not be shown on documentation of the payments. Six months later, the Judicial Education Project submitted an amicus brief in Shelby County v. Holder. Justice Thomas participated in that case, voting to strike down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act as advocated for by the Judicial Education Project.

Thomas Must Be Impeached

Congress has the authority and obligation to impeach Justice Thomas under the U.S. Constitution, which states that civil officers of the United States “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

“High Crimes and Misdemeanors” includes corruption and abuse of power. The grounds for impeachment have unquestionably been met here. Justice Thomas has flouted the Supreme Court’s rules of ethics and federal laws of disclosure and recusal. He has abused his power, violated the public’s trust, and undermined the legitimacy of his decisions.

The Framers placed the responsibility of Impeachment in the hands of Congress. Congress must take that responsibility seriously now to impeach Justice Thomas.

Take Action: Tell the House Judiciary Committee: Impeach Justice Clarence Thomas