Clarence Thomas’s behavior makes it clear: We need a SCOTUS Code of Ethics!
Petition to Congress:
We’ve called on the Supreme Court to have Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from the Moore v. Harper case and any other case pertaining to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Now, Congress must immediately pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act to enact urgently-needed ethical standards for the Supreme Court.
The fringe idea that states can overturn election results and ignore the will of the people will come before the Supreme Court this fall.1 Justice Clarence Thomas must recuse himself from that case.
His wife, the far-right activist Ginni Thomas, fought to get fair 2020 election results thrown out in Trump’s favor and used this far-right theory to defend her actions. There’s no way Justice Thomas can rule fairly on this case, or any other cases pertaining to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The whole situation makes clear: Congress must pass legislation forcing the Supreme Court to act ethically.
Sign the petition: Pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, legislation creating a Code of Ethics for Supreme Court justices and their spouses!
ustice Thomas has previously failed to recuse himself from cases pertaining to the 2020 election. In January 2021, Clarence Thomas was the only justice who sided with Trump in a case determining whether the January 6th Committee could access Trump White House records.2
Just two months later, we learned the extent of his wife’s involvement in the Trump coup attempt. Ginni Thomas texted with Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about the insurrection and pressured lawmakers at the state and federal levels to throw out the fairly-determined election results.2
In response, Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act. The legislation addresses SCOTS conflicts of interest by banning Members of the court from trading individual stocks, requiring the court to adopt a Code of Ethics, overhauling the recusal process, and more.3
They called for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself — but without a code of conduct, he could simply ignore their demands.4
Clarence Thomas’s shameless dissent in Trump’s favor shows there’s no way he could rule fairly on the independent state legislature theory. We need a SCOTUS Code of Ethics — now!
Sign the petition: Pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, legislation creating a Code of Ethics for Supreme Court justices and their spouses!
Sources:
- SCOTUS Blog, “Moore v. Harper,” September 21, 2022.
- Washington Post, “Virginia Thomas urged White House chief to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, texts show,” March 24, 2022.
- Rep. Pramila Jayapal, “Jayapal, Warren, Colleagues Introduce Bill to Reform Broken Judicial Ethics System,” May 10, 2022.
- Washington Post, “With Supreme Court in spotlight, Warren and Jayapal push judicial ethics overhaul,” May 10, 2022.