In the wake of revelations that his wife was active in the planning of the rallies that would devolve into the insurrection in Washington on January 6, 2021, a number of prominent Congressional Democrats sent a letter Monday to the Supreme Court asking Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from all future cases regarding either the events of that day or the attempts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election won by Joe Biden.
The letter was part of an effort led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, and it also asked for a “written explanation for his failure to recuse himself” from previous cases handling those matters.
It comes on the heels of an explosive story in The Washington Post detailing how Thomas’s wife, activist Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, was in steady communication with former President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and actively involved in attempting to overturn Biden’s electoral defeat of Trump.
The Democrats’ letter to the court spells out Ginni Thomas’s exploits as a conservative activist who was instrumental in the development of the “Stop the Steal” movement in an effort to paint an impossibility for Justice Thomas to remain unbiased on these matters.
As it stands, Thomas was the only dissenting justice when the Supreme Court chose to reject Trump’s attempt to block the Congressional January 6 Committee from seeing documents they had requested.
Earlier this month, Ginni Thomas defended her husband’s place as a justice with a vote on those issues, telling the Washington Free Beacon, “Clarence doesn’t discuss his work with me, and I don’t involve him in my work.”
The letter also asks Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. to commit by April 28 to “a binding Code of Conduct for the Supreme Court — the only court in the country not currently subject to a judicial code of ethics — that includes (1) enforceable provisions to ensure that the Justices comply with this Code and (2) a requirement that all Justices issue written recusal decision.”
“Chief Justice Roberts has often spoken about the importance of the Supreme Court’s ‘credibility and legitimacy as an institution.' That trust, already at all-time lows with the American public, must be earned,” the letter reads.
The Jan. 6 Committee is expected to seek an interview with Ginni Thomas about the texts they uncovered in their investigation.
The Democrats’ letter to the court is co-signed by nine other senators and 13 other representatives.
Related
