in the crosshairs

AOC says 'impeachment should be on the table' for Clarence Thomas

Impeachment should be "on the table" for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote in a Twitter thread Tuesday.

Justice Thomas has come under scrutiny after the publication of text messages his wife — conservative activist Virginia "Ginni" Thomas — exchanged with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows as Meadows worked with then-President Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election.  

New York University law professor Stephen Gillers told The New York Times that, in light of Ginni Thomas' activities, it would be inappropriate for Justice Thomas to rule on cases related to the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

When the Supreme Court ruled in January that former President Donald Trump could not block White House records from being sent to the Jan. 6 committee, Thomas was the only justice to dissent.

Ocasio-Cortez began her thread by discussing the House's decision to impeach Trump in 2019 for withholding aid to Ukraine, a decision she claimed many Democrats dismissed as a "stunt."

"Often what seems like the righteous yet politically foolish thing short term ends up being the wisest choice long term," she wrote.

Ocasio-Cortez then applied this lesson to the Clarence Thomas situation. "Subpoenas, investigations, and impeachment should absolutely be on the table. We shouldn't have to think twice about that," she wrote. "We must go where the facts take us. A failure to act puts the imperiling of democracy squarely on *our* shoulders. It's our duty to defend it."

Only one Supreme Court justice has ever been impeached. Associate Justice Samuel Chase was impeached by the House in 1805 but was acquitted by the Senate. In 1970, then-House Minority Leader Gerald Ford called unsuccessfully for the impeachment of Justice William O. Douglas, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Nearly two dozen other lawmakers are also demanding that Thomas recuse himself from 2020 election-related cases, Bloomberg reports.