Appleton, Wis. – On the eve of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Outagamie County Executive and U.S. Senate candidate Tom Nelson called for the impeachment of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and pledged to vote to remove him if elected.
A recent investigation by the New York Times showed the direct ties Ginni Thomas, the justice’s wife, had to the plotters of the January 6th Capitol attack and insurrection. Justice Thomas subsequently refused to recuse himself in a case that directly involved the select committee investigating the attack.
But it’s just the latest glaring example of Justice Thomas corrupting the reputation of the Supreme Court by refusing to recuse himself during other conflicts with his wife’s-or his own- partisan activism, from the Bush vs. Gore decision to attempts to kill Obamacare to cases where close political associates of Ginni filed amicus briefs with the Court.
The U.S. Supreme Court currently operates with no code of ethics and relies solely on the judgment of each justice. And while frequently hearing cases that involve the most important corporations in the nation, justices aren’t required to report their stock trades. Just as Nelson has called for members of Congress and their families to be banned from trading stocks, the same should hold true for Supreme Court justices. This “honor code” system is clearly failing and in need of reform.
Nelson said:
“As the U.S. Senate takes up a critical and historic Supreme Court nomination, it’s clear that there needs to be systemic reforms to restore trust in our nation’s highest court. We need a code of ethics for the Supreme Court, a ban of stock trading for justices, and Justice Clarence Thomas should be impeached because of his repeated ethics abuses.
“It defies any sense of fairness or propriety that he would continue to rule on matters relating to the January 6th attack on the Capitol, which his wife was intimately involved with; just as he should not have been ruling on the Affordable Care Act while his spouse was leading the efforts to kill it.
“Impeaching Clarence Thomas is a matter of American justice itself. He is a threat to democracy and should be removed immediately.”
