By Marc Morial
“The Supreme Court is the highest court in the land but has the lowest ethical standards, which means pay-to-play billionaires, right-wing dark money groups and carbon-emitting special interests have freedom to purchase the best justice money can buy. Congress can’t stand idly by as this emboldened and imperious Court pursues a lawless right-wing agenda and strips our citizens of their Constitutional rights.” – U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin
Several paragraphs into a media account of the many undisclosed and unethical gifts Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted – including a yacht trip to Russia and a helicopter flight to Yusupov Palace in St. Petersburg – is a simple, but chilling phrase:
“It’s unclear whether Thomas met with Putin.”
Did a member of the nation’s highest court, entrusted to ensure fair and free elections, meet with the corrupt tyrant who directed the most elaborate election sabotage operation in American history? It’s unclear.
It’s an extraordinary commentary on the depths to which the integrity of the Supreme Court has sunk.
What is clear is that Thomas and his equally unethical colleague, Justice Samuel Alito, are not fit to serve on the Supreme Court. The effort to remove them from the bench, formally launched in Congress this week, is unlikely to succeed in a House of Representatives in thrall to its most extreme right-wing members. But that does not negate the responsibility of Congress to safeguard the integrity of the court.
The resolution on Thomas includes three articles of impeachment:
- Failure to disclose financial income, gifts and reimbursements, property interests, liabilities, and transactions, among other information.
- Refusal to recuse from matters concerning his spouse’s legal interest in cases before the court.
- Refusal to recuse from matters involving his spouse’s financial interest in cases before the court.
The resolution on Alito includes two articles of impeachment:
- Refusal to recuse from cases in which he had a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party in cases before the court.
- Failure to disclose financial income, gifts and reimbursements, property interests, liabilities, and transactions, among other information.
The misdeeds of Alito and Thomas have been well-documented by investigative journalists and examined by a House Oversight panel and the Senate Finance Committee. . Senators this week asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate two of Thomas’ ethical breaches specifically.
“The unchecked corruption crisis on the Supreme Court has now spiraled into a constitutional crisis threatening American democracy writ large,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who introduced the impeachment resolutions, said. She has been joined by 18 co-sponsors.
Sadly, it has been clear for some time that the Supreme Court has no intention of enforcing such standards when it comes to its own members. The so-called Code of Conduct it issued last year was more a justification of corruption than a prohibition against it.
It is regrettable when any public official runs afoul of the standards of decency and integrity that should guide their actions. It is exponentially so when the official is one who is entrusted with enforcing standards of decency and integrity.
Marc Morial is president/CEO of the National Urban League.
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