Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) filed articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas on Wednesday on the allegations of "unchecked corruption."
The congresswoman filed the articles on July 10 after threatening to do so last week because both justices refused to recuse themselves from certain cases involving former President Donald Trump and thus pose a threat to the rule of law.
"Absent resignation, they must be removed," Ocasio-Cortez declared on the floor of the House.
"Because of Alito's and Thomas’s refusals to recuse, everyday Americans cannot, should not and will not believe that these justices, and consequently the court they serve, is working to uphold the Constitution and put the country ahead of their own individual self-interests," she added.
"Reasonable Americans will and do believe that Justices Thomas and Alito are prone and subject to corruption, that the institution failing to punish them is broken and that consequently their impeachment is a constitutional imperative and our congressional duty."
Ocasio-Cortez first threatened to file charges on July 1 after the Supreme Court ruled that Trump had absolute immunity from prosecution for official acts within his constitutional authority as president but did not have immunity for unofficial acts.
The court ruling immediately curtailed plans by the Biden Justice Department to prosecute Trump before the presidential elections in November.
"The Supreme Court has become consumed by a corruption crisis beyond its control," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted after the Supreme Court decision.
"Today’s ruling represents an assault on American democracy. It is up to Congress to defend our nation from this authoritarian capture. I intend on filing articles of impeachment upon our return."
A total of three articles of impeachment have been brought by Ocasio-Cortez against Thomas, while Alito is facing two.
The New York congresswoman charged Thomas over undisclosed gifts that he received from a wealthy conservative friend and an alleged conflict of interest in cases involving his wife Ginni Thomas' legal and financial interests before the court.
Thomas's wife also faced attacks by Democrats over her support for Trump's efforts to challenge the questionable results of the 2020 presidential election. This led to further demands that the justice recuse himself from two key cases involving the former president, but he refused to do so.
Alito's relationship with billionaire investor Paul Singer, with whom he went on a fishing trip to Alaska, led to the first charge that he had "a personal bias or prejudice" in cases involving the hedge fund manager before the court and that he failed to recuse himself.
The second charge Alito is facing concerns an upside-down U.S. flag and an Appeal to Heaven flag flying over his home.
The two flags have been flown by those who support the claim that the 2020 presidential election results were illegitimate.
Alito said that his wife flew the two flags at his home, and he ignored demands by the Democrats to recuse himself from two cases involving Trump before the court.
Ocasio-Cortez and her supporters further accused Alito of being biased towards Trump and the January 6 Capitol Hill protestors.
"The unchecked corruption crisis on the Supreme Court has now spiraled into a Constitutional crisis threatening American democracy writ large," Cortez announced in a statement.
"Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito’s pattern of refusal to recuse from consequential matters before the court in which they hold widely documented financial and personal entanglements constitutes a grave threat to American rule of law, the integrity of our democracy, and one of the clearest cases for which the tool of impeachment was designed."
"Justice Thomas and Alito’s repeated failure over decades to disclose that they received millions of dollars in gifts from individuals with business before the court is explicitly against the law. And their refusal to recuse from the specific matters and cases before the court in which their benefactors and spouses are implicated represents nothing less than a constitutional crisis. These failures alone would amount to a deep transgression worthy of standard removal in any lower court, and would disqualify any nominee to the highest court from confirmation in the first place," she continued.
The articles of impeachment were co-sponsored by Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla)., Ilhan Omar (D-Minn), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
Join the conversation as a VIP Member