Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez launched the latest salvo against the Supreme Court on Wednesday, but legal experts say the move will do little beyond further eroding the court’s legitimacy.
Ocasio-Cortez introduced articles of impeachment against Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on Wednesday, suggesting that the jurists are corrupt or otherwise unfit to continue to serve on the nation’s highest court. However, the “Squad” lawmaker’s impeachment effort is not grounded in precedent or good faith, nor is it likely to accomplish much besides extending the partisan campaign to undermine the court’s Republican-appointed majority under the guise of effectuating ethics reform, according to legal scholars who spoke with the DCNF.
“These resolutions against Justices Thomas and Alito are highly speculative, completely unsupported by any evidence, and involve matters of internal Supreme Court administration. Since the Supreme Court was created by the Constitution, not by Congress, it has its own constitutional authority and is part of the judicial branch, which is designed, among other things, to provide a check on abuses of power by Congress,” John Malcolm, vice president of the Heritage Foundation’s Institute for Constitutional Government, told the DCNF. “These resolutions are nothing more than an attack on the independence of the judiciary and an attempt to bend the Court to the will of a vehemently partisan minority of Congress.” (RELATED: Supreme Court Delivers Crippling Blow To Permanent Bureaucracy’s Power Over Americans’ Lives)
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Specifically, Ocasio-Cortez argued that Thomas should be impeached because of his failure to disclose gifts from real estate mogul Harlan Crow and other wealthy friends, and also because he did not recuse himself from matters purportedly involving the financial and legal interests of his wife.
ProPublica, a nonprofit news outlet, published a series of stories in 2023 on Thomas’ relationship with Crow, laying the groundwork for a sustained effort by Democrats to push Supreme Court ethics reforms and suggest that Thomas is not impartial. While the outlet won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage, the DCNF exposed in June 2023 that ProPublica’s top donors also bankroll an array of activist groups that were attacking Thomas’ ethics.
As for Alito, Ocasio-Cortez has deemed him impeachable for not disclosing certain income and reimbursements, as well as for not recusing himself from matters in which he is supposedly biased. Like Thomas, Democrats began their sustained pressure campaign against Alito after a series of media reports, including the ProPublica series, and most recently a barrage of pieces about purportedly controversial flags that his wife flew at their homes.
Thomas and Alito are recognized as two of the court’s most conservative, originalist members. While Democrats often allege that the Republican-appointed majority, which includes Alito and Thomas, constantly rule in ways that benefit conservatives, a DCNF review of rulings from the recently-concluded term showed that this narrative is false.
“If these resolutions resulted in the impeachment and removal of either Justice Thomas or Justice Alito, it would do incalculable and likely permanent damage to the separation of powers, which is the most important bulwark to protecting and preserving our civil liberties,” Malcolm — who also is the former deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division — told the DCNF. (RELATED: ‘Must Be Reading From A Different Case’: Conservative Justices Drag Liberal Colleagues For Botching Dissent)
SCOTUS Didn’t Just Upend Jack Smith’s Plans For Pre-Election Trump Trial, They May Have Ended His Entire Prosecution https://t.co/zHuJQE3nLi
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The House has impeached one Supreme Court justice and 14 judges serving in lower courts over the course of American history, according to Malcolm. The Senate has convicted and removed eight of the lower court judges, and most of those who were impeached and acquitted were accused of engaging in clear criminal conduct, he said.
“AOC gets only one — and only one — thing right: the proper check that Congress has on the judicial branch is impeachment (unlike unconstitutionally adding term limits or giving Senators a veto power over who sits on high-profile cases). But her attempt to bootstrap nitpicks from disclosure forms into high crimes and misdemeanors is utterly unserious and will go nowhere,” Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, told the DCNF. “She is joining the campaign to discredit the Court because they’re trying to build a movement for Congressional power-grabs like packing the Court. But undermining our core institutions for clickbait is profoundly cynical and short-sighted.”
Ocasio-Cortez is not the only Democrat who has led the charge against the Supreme Court. Democratic Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has referred to the court as a “weapon” to be wielded in favor of conservative interests, while Democratic Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin joined Whitehouse in trying to bring Chief Justice John Roberts in for a lecture about the court’s ethical standards in May.
“There have only been a few federal judges impeached in American history, and all for very serious offenses, such as bribery or joining the confederacy,” Josh Blackman, a professor of law at the South Texas College of Law Houston, told the DCNF. “There is no real basis for these articles of impeachment. If federal judges can be impeached simply because politicians disagree with their rulings, judicial independence would soon be eroded.”
The offices of Ocasio-Cortez, Whitehouse and Durbin did not respond to requests for comment.
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