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TRANSCRIPT: REP. AOC DELIVERS MAJOR FLOOR SPEECH ON ARTICLES OF
IMPEACHMENT AGAINST JUSTICES THOMAS AND ALITO  
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
July 20, 2024
Stansbury Forum
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_ While our framers perhaps may not have envisioned someone like me,
in this seat, they absolutely did envision the necessity and value of
the impeachment action upon which I seek to advance today. _

L: Obama inaugration 2009. R) Protesting woman at Trump inauggration
2017,. Washington D.C. Photos: Robert Gumpert,

 

_Today President Biden withdrew from the presidential campaign. How
will replace him?  Well while I think most think it will be VP
Harris, it remains to be seen. But regardless the issues remain the
same - not least of which is the Supreme Court.  Because of that,
today the Stansbury Forum is running the transcript of US
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s floor speech on Articles
of Impeachment against Justices Thomas and Alito.  _
 
_THE STANSBURY FORUM BELIEVES IT IS IMPORTANT TO PROVIDE THE FULL TEXT
OF AOC'S JULY 10 SPEECH. _
 
 
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to introduce articles of
impeachment against Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, Clarence
Thomas, and Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. Against Justice Thomas the
resolution includes three total articles. One count of failure to
disclose financial income gifts reimbursements, property interests,
liabilities, and transactions among other information and two counts
of refusal to recuse from matters concerning his spouse’s legal and
financial interests before the court.

The second resolution includes the following impeachment articles
against Justice Alito, one count of a refusal to recuse from cases in
which he had a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party before
the court and one count of failure to disclose financial incomes,
gifts reimbursements property interests, among other information. Mr.
Speaker, nomination and appointment to the Supreme Court is one of the
highest privileges and most consequential responsibilities of our
nation.

Such an appointment is uniquely insulated in its power. Confirmation
to the court is a lifetime appointment, whereby justices are entrusted
with decisions that powerfully shaped the nation as well as the lives
of every American. For this reason and others, the Constitution
rightfully and explicitly holds justices to even higher standards than
members of Congress, or even the president.

Section one of Article Three of the Constitution commands federal
justices to hold their offices during good behavior, in addition to
its clauses barring treason, bribery, and other high crimes and
misdemeanors, and Congress has exercised its power to reinforce this
higher standard of the judiciary before this body has impeached and
removed eight federal judges for transgressions rates ranging from
evading income tax and perjury to intoxication on the bench and
abandoning the office to join the Confederacy.

Perhaps most critical to the legitimacy of the institution, these
traditional standards require justices to recuse themselves in any
proceeding where their impartiality might reasonably be questioned. In
other words, if a person could reasonably believe that the legitimacy
of a justice’s judgment could be or be perceived to be compromised,
due to their personal involvement in the case or its parties, the
standard is clear. The Justice must recuse. They are required to
recuse.

That stringent and sacred standard exists for the good of the ruling
the judiciary and the country. Mr. Speaker, I believe that everyday
Americans independent of party or ideology can reasonably conclude
that Justices Thomas and Alito’s years long pattern of misconduct
and failure to recuse in cases bearing their clear personal and
financial involvement represents an abuse of power and threat to our
democracy fundamentally incompatible with continued service on our
nation’s highest court. For the good of the institution and the
nation, absent resignation, they must be removed. The proof is
undeniable.

And here I will lay it out. Justice Clarence Thomas, for decades now
has carried on a close financially entangled personal relationship
with real estate billionaire Harlan Crow. It is of material importance
to the American people to note that Justice Thomas’s relationship to
the billionaire only began after Thomas’s powerful appointment to
our nation’s highest court. The cash, goods, and services Justice
Thomas received over the years include large loan balance
cancellations, tuition payments for family and vacations in private
jets and yachts worth up to half a million dollars alone.

In total, Justice Thomas appears to have received more than $1.5
million worth in goods, cash equivalents and services from Mr. Crow.
And that is just what we know of. But truthfully, we won’t ever
really know the total sum of contributions Thomas received from Crow.
Justice Thomas not only accepted these contributions, while Mr. Crow
had business in front of the court, but he accepts had them in secret
feeling for years and years to report them. Yet Thomas did report
smaller gifts during this time, demonstrating a clear understanding of
his legal obligation to report. Would a reasonable American question
that receiving lavish gifts from Mr. Crow might lead Justice Thomas to
have a bias towards his quote friend with business before the court?
Without a doubt, yes. But to Justice Thomas recuse? No.

Now take Justice Samuel Alito, who has no shortage of billionaire
associates of his own. After billionaire Paul Singer gave Justice
Alito a luxury fishing trip on a private jet, a contribution that was
also hidden from the public and the court. Justice Alito not only
refused to recuse, but changed his mind regarding his gracious hosts
case. Just a short time after accepting the lavish undisclosed trip
from singer Alito joined the court in reversing its previous position
and took up Singer’s case he did not recuse. Justice Alito also
refused to recuse in the case itself, ultimately leading to a ruling
that netted Singer $2.4 billion and that ruling did not just enrich
Singer. It also structurally tilted the playing field further away
from working people and towards the vulture funds, siphoning money and
resources away from the communities that need the most. Could a
reasonable American question whether or not Justice Alito could have
acted impartially in this case, given his personal relationship with
Singer? Absolutely.

In January 2021, after the former president of the United States
incited an insurrection on the Capitol in this chamber to interfere
with the results of the US election, Justice Samuel Alito and his wife
flew an upside down American flag, a symbol of solidarity with the
attack outside their home. Two years later, they publicly displayed
outside their home yet another incendiary symbol, a flag associated
with extreme right wing Christian nationalism. Justice Alito maintains
that his wife, Martha Ann Alito, is the only one responsible for the
flags. But common sense maintains that such a close and incendiary
revelation requires recusal by the Justice from January 6th related
cases. Despite the overwhelming appearance of a conflict of interest,
Justice Alito refused to recuse himself from cases surrounding the
2020 election and questions of the former president’s legal immunity
in the attack. Would a reasonable person question that Justice
Alito’s conduct exhibits and demonstrates reasonable concern for
bias in these cases? Absolutely. And without question.

And finally, Justice Thomas, who is married to Virginia Thomas, a
financially and personally involved operative in the Stop the Steal
movement and Capitol attack also joined opinions in these cases, even
as clear evidence mounted that not only was his wife fully committed
to overthrowing the results of a fair election, but she was actively
lobbying members of the Trump administration attempting to do just
that. The questions before the court had unquestionable implications
for Thomas’s wife, and consequently, Thomas himself, making his
refusal to recuse one of the most shocking examples of conflict of
interest in the court’s history. And crucially, it was both Justices
Thomas and Alito, who cast critical votes in the ruling.

It now follows that 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. Americans will not believe that the Court
interpreted the law independent of profit for themselves and their
newly termed friends. Without action against these blatant violations,
reasonable Americans have and will continue to lose faith in the court
itself. Reasonable Americans will and do believe that Justices Thomas
and Alito are prone and subjected to corruption, that the institution
failing to punish them is broken, and that consequently, their
impeachment is a constitutional imperative and our congressional duty.
The abuses of power committed by Justice Thomas and Justice Alito, are
precisely the types of corruption that the framers understood was an
existential threat to our democracy.

Instances like these, and misconduct like that of Alito’s and
Thomas’s are precisely why the framers gave us the tool of
impeachment. Corruption, without consequence, infects all it touches.
And that is why this body, Congress, has a constitutional and moral
obligation to hold these Justices accountable, to maintain the
integrity of our courts, and to uphold the standards of the judiciary
and our institutions. Lastly, we cannot ignore the most important
material consequences of this Court’s unchecked corruption, and its
resulting influence, the suffering of the American people.

We cannot ignore and pretend that this corruption is wholly unrelated
to the millions of pregnant Americans now suffering and bleeding out
in emergency rooms under the court’s unleashing of extreme abortion
bans across the United States, which was a key political priority of
these undisclosed benefactors, and shadow organizations surrounding
Alito and Thomas’s misconduct. Nor can we ignore the millions of
Americans now suffering hours long wait times in the hot sun, often
without water, just to cast a ballot, also a direct result of this
corrupt courts gutting of the Voting Rights Act, allowing the closing
of polling sites across the country.

You see, neither of these Justices, nor their shadowy benefactors have
to answer to the parents of developmentally delayed children about
their decision to gut the power of the EPA and the entire
administrative state with it. But they do have to answer to us, the
Congress, whom these people the American people have elected and
entrusted to protect them, to serve them, and to defend the well being
of our democracy.

Mr. Speaker, I am here today presenting these articles of impeachment,
not because I am a Democrat, and not because I am blind to its odds in
a Republican led chamber. I present them because it is the right thing
to do. And while our framers perhaps may not have envisioned someone
like me, in this seat, they absolutely did envision the necessity and
value of the impeachment action upon which I seek to advance today.
Thank you and I yield back.

_Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has served as the U.S. representative for
New York's 14th congressional district since 2019,_

* Supreme Court
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* impeachment
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* Clarence Thomas
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* Samuel Alito
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* Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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