Ranking Member Raskin and Vice Ranking Member Ocasio-Cortez Demand Answers from Chief Justice Roberts Amid Deepening Supreme Court Ethics Crisis
Washington, D.C. (June 20, 2024)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Vice Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, sent a letter to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts calling on him to make clear what steps, if any, he is taking to investigate allegations of serious ethical misconduct by conservative Justices on the Supreme Court.
“We write with alarm about the deepening ethics crisis at the Supreme Court of the United States, which is turning into a full-blown legitimacy crisis. You have repeatedly asked Congress and the American people to trust Justices of the Supreme Court to police their own conduct, assuring us that ‘[e]very Justice seeks to follow high ethical standards . . . and is committed to the common interest in preserving the Court’s vital role as an impartial tribunal governed by the rule of law.’ Yet, over the past year, revelations by investigative reporters and Senate investigators have established that certain Justices have abused that trust,” wrote Ranking Member Raskin and Vice Ranking Member Ocasio-Cortez.
In today’s letter, Ranking Member Raskin and Vice Ranking Member Ocasio-Cortez questioned what steps Chief Justice Roberts is taking to investigate flagrant instances of partisan activity and lack of disclosure brought to light by investigative journalists and Senate investigators. The Court’s apparent refusal to investigate these allegations of misconduct by Justice Thomas and Justice Alito raise significant concerns that the Court is unable, or perhaps just unwilling, to investigate and police its own conduct to ensure that Justices comply with their statutory and constitutional obligations.
Recent public reporting has demonstrated that, once again, Justice Clarence Thomas has concealed his receipt of numerous lavish vacations from private megadonors—including individuals with business before the Supreme Court—in blatant violation of even the Court’s minimal disclosure requirements. In recent weeks, Justice Thomas amended his financial disclosures to add two 2019 luxury trips reportedly worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, funded by billionaire activist Harlan Crow. Days later, the Senate Judiciary Committee uncovered three additional trips paid for by Mr. Crow, that Justice Thomas still has failed to report on his financial disclosure forms. In the last two decades, Justice Thomas has received gifts valued at $2.4 million at least.
News reports alleging clear instances of partisan activity by Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Thomas—who have refused to recuse themselves from two cases related to the January 6, 2021, insurrection and the “Stop the Steal” movement—also raise glaring conflicts of interest and questionable impartiality problems.
Last month, reporting revealed that between the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol and President Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021, Justice Alito and his spouse flew an upside-down American flag outside of their personal residence, in an apparent show of support for the “Stop the Steal” movement. Additional reporting has since uncovered other instances of partisan activity by Justice Alito, from displaying other political flags to suggesting he is involved in an ideological battle with “the Left,” according to audio recordings.
Justice Thomas also has ties to the “Stop the Steal” movement, as his wife, Ginni Thomas, helped lead the “Stop the Steal” campaign, attended the January 6, 2021, rally near the White House, and actively strategized with then-President Trump’s chief of staff about overturning the results of the 2020 elections—all of which suggests serious bias and conflicts of interest for cases before the Supreme Court.
“While the Judicial Conference and the Supreme Court both have the ability and, in certain circumstances a statutory obligation, to investigate potential ethical violations by Justices of the Supreme Court, these revelations, which call into question both the integrity and impartiality of two sitting Supreme Court Justices, came only as a result of the diligent work of the press and Congress. . . . We are therefore writing to you in your double role as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and presiding officer of the Judicial Conference, to understand what efforts, if any, the Court and the Conference have undertaken in light of the allegations of serious ethical violations by Justices raised by these reports,” Ranking Member Raskin and Vice Ranking Member Ocasio-Cortez added.
On June 11, 2024, Ranking Member Raskin and Vice Ranking Member Ocasio-Cortez led Committee Democrats in examining the private and public corruption of the Supreme Court in a roundtable titled “High Court, Low Standards, and Dark Money: Flagging a Supreme Ethics Crisis in America.”
In November 2023, Ranking Member Raskin led Committee Democrats in a letter to Chairman Comer urging him to investigate the ethics crisis in the Supreme Court amid reports of conservative Justices receiving undisclosed lavish gifts from wealthy individuals with business before the Court.
Click here to read today’s letter.