Clarence Thomas is one of those people where it’s hard to politely summarize your feelings about them. The hyper-conservative Supreme Court justice has spent his nearly three decades on the bench blocking social progress at virtually every turn. But now, some Democratic legislators are calling for Thomas’s resignation following reports of alleged ethical breaches.
Or, in less politician-speak: Last week, messages initially obtained by ABC News and The Washington Post showed that in late 2020, Thomas’s wife Ginni had urged Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, to overturn the election. Most alarmingly, Ginni Thomas, who has a long history of being a nuisance, invoked some of the biggest conspiracies on QAnon forums in her messages to Meadows. For example, she sent Meadows a link to a YouTube video labeled “TRUMP STING w CIA Director Steve Pieczenik, The Biggest Election Story in History, QFS-BLOCKCHAIN.”
Ginni’s messages to Meadows are troubling — not only for herself, but also for her husband. You have to side-eye any official whose spouse is out here spouting conspiracy theories and basically advocating for a coup. But that’s not the worst of it. What these reports further illuminate is one of Thomas’s voting decisions following the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Earlier this year, Thomas was the only justice to vote against releasing a tranche of presidential documents. Now we know that those documents would’ve shown his wife’s communications with Meadows. The question of how Clarence Thomas still has a job in light of these revelations seems to be weighing on not only the general public, but Democratic officials, too: On Tuesday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) took to Twitter to call for Thomas’s resignation.
“Clarence Thomas should resign,” she wrote. “If not, his failure to disclose income from right-wing organizations, recuse himself from matters involving his wife, and his vote to block the Jan. 6 commission from key information must be investigated and could serve as grounds for impeachment.”
Because Supreme Court justices aren’t bound by a code of conduct, Thomas can decide for himself whether or no any recusal is appropriate. But as Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet suggests, recusal from anything involving the Jan. 6 insurrection and his wife is honestly the bare minimum.
Although Thomas has yet to comment on the matter, it’s hard to imagine that he was unaware of his wife’s communications with Meadows. And they are damning. Among other messages, Ginni Thomas reportedly wrote to Meadows:
Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.
Then, in another text, she said, “You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal suggested that Thomas should “voluntarily” appear before the Jan. 6 committee to clarify what, if any, role he had in his wife’s activities. That’s unlikely to happen, though. And since Thomas missed the opportunity to recuse himself months ago, it seems Democrats are starting to recognize they might need to take direct action.
