17 GROUPS SEND LETTER TO JUDICIARY COMMITTEES CALLING FOR INVESTIGATION INTO JUSTICE THOMAS’ MISCONDUCT
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (April 1, 2022) — Today, Take Back the Court Action Fund and sixteen other allied groups sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin and House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler calling on their committees to investigate Justice Clarence Thomas’ misconduct in cases related to the January 6 insurrection, the 2020 election, and other cases involving his wife’s political activities.
“It’s obvious that Justice Thomas isn’t going to act ethically on his own. So if there’s any chance of protecting our nation’s democracy or restoring Americans’ trust in the Supreme Court, it’s up to Congress to hold Thomas accountable for his misconduct,” said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, executive director of Take Back the Court Action Fund. “Clarence Thomas threw justice and ethics by the wayside in participating in cases relating to his wife’s efforts to overturn an election. If he did that to help cover up his wife’s involvement in an attempted coup, the American people deserve to know — and it’s up to lawmakers to get to the bottom of it.”
The letter states:
“These investigations should examine whether Justice Thomas’ conduct was consistent with basic principles of judicial ethics, whether he violated federal law and his oath to ‘impartially discharge and perform’ his judicial duties, and what actions must be taken in response. [...]
“Public trust in the Court is already at an historic low. Allowing Justice Thomas to avoid scrutiny will surely cause the American people’s faith in our judicial system to deteriorate further — perhaps beyond repair. Americans know that Justice Thomas cannot act impartially in cases related to his wife’s political activities. It’s up to your committees to ensure that he is held accountable for abusing his power and pretending otherwise.”
The groups’ request for an investigation follows bombshell revelations last week that Thomas’ wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, was in regular communication via text message with former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the lead up to the insurrection on January 6th, 2021. In those messages, Ginni Thomas urged Trump not to concede the 2020 presidential election and promoted overturning its results.
Despite this clear conflict of interest, Clarence Thomas repeatedly stood in the way of justice and transparency in Court matters related to the 2020 election and the attack on the Capitol. Justice Thomas was the only justice who voted to withhold access to key Trump administration documents from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack, and was the lone justice to disagree with his eight colleagues in their decision not to take up a case threatening the legitimacy of Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballots.