Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) defended Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from a barrage of progressive calls for him to be impeached because of his wife’s communications with Trump administration officials on the day of the January 6 Capitol riot.
“Judicial independence is essential to our Republic,” McConnell said in remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday. “It’s integral to the rule of law. And for the most part, since the Democratic Party’s last run at partisan court-packing in the 1930s, both parties have respected it. But lately, Washington Democrats have gone off the rails.”
McConnell then cited three occasions in the last three years where another branch of government had tried to put its thumb on the scale of the Court. “In 2019, Democratic Senators tried to openly bully the Supreme Court into a certain outcome. They wrote a threatening amicus brief saying the Court had better, ‘heal itself,'” McConnell said, referring to a brief filed in the 2019 case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. City of New York, New York. “In 2020, the Democratic Leader himself stood on the steps of the Supreme Court and threatened multiple sitting Justices by name if they didn’t reach the policy outcome that liberals wanted. In 2021, President Biden assisted the delegitimizing campaign by constructing a pseudo-academic commission to ponder ideas like partisan court-packing and unconstitutional term limits.”
“And now, in the last few days, the latest chapter. The left’s quest to delegitimize the Supreme Court found its latest outlet,” McConnell continued. “This time, it’s a coordinated effort to nullify the presence of Justice Clarence Thomas on the Court. The far left wants another crack at what they tried and failed to do in 1991. Washington Democrats are now trying to bully this exemplary judge of 30-plus years out of entire legal subjects, or off the Court entirely. Far-left House members are talking about dusting off their party’s impeachment addiction for a third consecutive year.”
“Make no mistake: this performative outrage is not in earnest. This is a political hit, part of liberals’ years-long quest to delegitimize the Court,” McConnell said, adding that leftists have issued similar demands for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, as well as Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, to recuse themselves from certain cases. “All because our laws and Constitution occasionally inconvenience Democrats’ radical agenda.”
McConnell then defended Thomas from the left-wing attacks. “Justice Clarence Thomas is a great American and an outstanding Justice,” he said. “He is faithful to the text of our laws and Constitution. His writing is clear. His reasoning is rigorous and transparent. I have total confidence in Justice Thomas’s impartiality in every aspect of the work of the Court.”
“All nine Justices deserve total independence as they approach every judicial decision they make,” McConnell concluded. “This clumsy bullying from the political branches is beyond the pale. Justice Thomas is an exemplary jurist who has modeled fidelity to the rule of law for more than 30 years and counting. I hope none of the Justices give any of the radical left’s various pressure campaigns a minute’s thought.”
Progressive members of Congress have mounted a concerted effort to impeach Thomas or force him to recuse himself from cases related to January 6 after reports surfaced that his wife, Ginni, was in communication with Trump administration officials, urging them to contest the 2020 election. Far-left Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) pushed for Thomas’ impeachment in a long Twitter thread Tuesday, and both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) have said that Thomas should recuse himself from January 6 cases.