Some Democrats say Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should not hear another case related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia are reacting to reports that Thomas' wife, Virginia, texted with former president Trump's chief of staff in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Wyden writes Thomas' conduct on the Supreme Court looks increasingly corrupt. He adds "At the bare minimum, Justice Thomas needs to recuse himself from any case related to the January 6th investigation, and should Donald Trump run again, any case related to the 2024 election."
On Twitter Kaine wrote "Justice Thomas was the sole member of the Supreme Court who would have allowed records from Trump, Meadows, et al to be withheld from House Jan 6 Committee. He did not explain his reasoning. We need answers."
Democratic Congressman Ted Lieu of California writes "Ginni Thomas can do whatever crazy things she wants. But Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas cannot rule on a case that would disclose the crazy things Ginni Thomas was doing. That was a clear conflict of interest."
In January, Thomas was the lone justice who dissented in a case brought by lawyers from the Trump administration. The High Court blocked the former administration's bid to keep some of their records from being handed over to the January 6 House committee.
James Alfini is the dean of the South Texas College of Law in Houston. He says Thomas should have recused himself then.
"What he did was reprehensible. He should not have ruled on that case. Why? Because we expect our judges to be impartial, particularly justices of the Supreme Court." Alfini also said "any objective observer would conclude that his sitting on that case gives the appearance that he was trying to cover his wife's tracks."
He says judges' impartiality is one of the key values we have in a Democratic society.
"We want them to be open minded, we don't want them to be influenced by anything other than the arguments that are coming before them in that particular case. Here his wife had an interest in that case. She might now be subpoenaed to testify. I don't think she wanted these communications with Mark Meadows to be broadcast and it makes it look even worse that Justice Thomas was the lone dissenter in that case."
Alfini notes that every judge in this country is subject to some code of judicial conduct, except for the nine justices of the Supreme Court. Alfini would like to see that change.
"This is an example of why a clear code of conduct is necessary for every member of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court," Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said.
Related
Related
