Calls for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to resign or be impeached have grown after a recent report showed that he accepted lavish gifts from wealthy benefactors in the past couple of decades while on the Supreme Court.
Last week, ProPublica—a New York-based non-profit, independent investigative newsroom—published a new report revealing that Thomas enjoyed at least 38 vacations in the past 20 years at the expense of wealthy benefactors and patrons "who share the ideology that drives his jurisprudence."
Earlier this year, ProPublica reported that, for at least two decades, Thomas had accepted gifts from friend Harlan Crow, a billionaire Republican donor. The reports sparked a debate over tightening ethics requirements for serving Supreme Court justices and added scrutiny to Thomas' actions.
The Department of Justice confirmed to Newsweek that it has received a letter from top House Democrats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, calling for an internal inquiry to be launched into Thomas' billionaire-funded trips.
"We can confirm that we received a letter from several members but have no further comment, in keeping with our standard practice of neither confirming nor denying the existence of an investigation," the DOJ wrote in a statement to Newsweek.
Earlier this year, Ocasio-Cortez had called for Thomas to be impeached. But can he be impeached? Or would he succumb to the increasing pressure following the revelations and resign?
Newsweek has contacted the Supreme Court for comment by email on Wednesday.
Daniel Urman, a law professor at Northeastern University whose expertise includes the Supreme Court, is doubtful.
"I would put the odds of Clarence Thomas resigning at 0 percent. One is never supposed to say never, but I can say never," he told Newsweek, adding that this is not the first scandal that the conservative justice has faced in his career since he started serving on the Supreme Court in 1991.
"Thomas has never gotten over his brutal 1991 confirmation hearings when he was accused of sexual harassment by his former colleague, Anita Hill. He even keeps a list of Senators who voted against him. Resigning would mean he's vindicating his critics, and he would never do that."
Thomas also faced calls to resign when it was reported that his wife, Virginia Thomas, was allegedly involved in efforts to help overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Urman said that it's also "nearly impossible" that Thomas would get impeached and removed.
"I can't imagine more than one or two Republican Senators who could vote to remove him, and the constitution requires 67 Senators to remove a federal official who has been impeached," he said.
No Supreme Court justice has ever been removed in U.S. history, despite precedents of impeachment attempts. In the 19th century, Justice Samuel Chase was impeached by Congress but was later acquitted by the Senate in 1805.
Eric J. Segall, the Kathy and Lawrence Ashe professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law, didn't delve into the consequences Thomas could face for accepting a series of lavish gifts from wealthy friends in the past couple of decades—but was harsh in condemning the justice's behavior.
"A real judge would never have accepted those kinds of gifts or would now resign because of them," he told Newsweek.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
