Tell Congress to Pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act

Lindsay Graham may have tried to convince Georgia election officials to throw out fair election results in Trump’s favor. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas just shielded Lindsay Graham from testifying before a grand jury about his involvement.¹

Thousands of activists across the country have called for Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from Supreme Court cases pertaining to the 2020 election due to his wife’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election — but Thomas is ignoring these demands. It’s time for Congress to pass legislation forcing the Supreme Court to abide by recusal standards, adopt a Code of Ethics, and stop trading stocks!

Sign the petition at https://act.demandprogress.org/sign/thomas-graham: Pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, legislation creating a Code of Ethics for Supreme Court justices and their spouses!

If Congress doesn’t act now, Clarence Thomas could be allowed to rule on a case with terrifying implications for our democracy: Moore v. Harper. Essentially, the court will determine whether states can overturn election results and ignore the will of the people.²

Justice Thomas has already demonstrated he’s unable to rule fairly on cases pertaining to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In January 2021, Clarence Thomas was the only justice who sided with Trump in a case determining whether the January 6th Committee could access Trump White House records.³

Just two months later, we learned the extent of his wife’s involvement in the Trump coup attempt. Ginni Thomas texted with Trump’s former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows about the insurrection and pressured lawmakers at the state and federal levels to throw out the fairly-determined election results.

Luckily, legislation addressing SCOTUS conflicts of interest is pending in Congress right now. the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, would ban Members of the court from trading individual stocks, requiring the court to adopt a Code of Ethics, overhauling the recusal process, and more.³

They called for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself — but without a code of conduct, he could simply ignore their demands.⁴ Clarence Thomas stands with Trump and Lindsay Graham. There’s no way he could rule fairly in Moore v. Harper. We need a SCOTUS Code of Ethics — now!

Sign the petition: Pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, legislation creating a Code of Ethics for Supreme Court justices and their spouses! 

Sources:

1. CNN, “Clarence Thomas freezes order for Lindsey Graham to testify before Georgia grand jury investigating 2020 election,” October 24, 2022.
2. SCOTUS Blog, “Moore v. Harper,” September 21, 2022.
3. Washington Post, “Virginia Thomas urged White House chief to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, texts show,” March 24, 2022.