Liberal constitutional scholar smacks down Dems for demanding that Clarence Thomas be impeached: 'Raging impeachment addiction'



Jonathan Turley — a constitutional scholar, professor at George Washington University Law School, and self-described "liberal" — rebuffed Democrats on Sunday for demanding that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas be impeached.

What is the background?

Leftists and Democrats called for Justice Thomas to resign or be impeached last week over text messages that his wife, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, sent then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows after the 2020 election.

The messages urged Trump's staff to fight against certification of election results. None of the messages referred to Justice Thomas or the Supreme Court. Most of the messages were sent in November 2020, while one message was sent the day after Jan. 6.

Critics of Justice Thomas claimed the messages are proof that Justice Thomas is ethically compromised — and therefore necessitate his resignation or impeachment — despite zero evidence that Justice Thomas has committed any wrongdoing.

What did Turley say?

According to Turley, the reaction from Democrats is par for the course, because when you're a hammer, everything is a nail.

Turley explained in an essay that impeachment demands against Justice Thomas are "entirely disconnected from any constitutional or logical foundation" and demonstrate how Democrats have a "raging impeachment addiction."

The constitutional scholar explained his rationale in three points:

  • First, Supreme Court Justices have "long insisted that they are not compelled to follow the Code of Judicial Conduct." And regarding a federal law that requires justices to rescue themselves from cases in which their impartially could be questioned, neither the Supreme Court nor Congress have enforced it.
  • Second, Ginni's text messages did not reveal a political position that was not already publicly known. In fact, it is a well-known fact that Ginni is a Trump supporter, and critics of Justice Thomas have long used his wife's political advocacy as a weapon against him.
  • Third, and most important, the text messages are completely unrelated to Justice Thomas being the lone dissenting vote in a case in which the Supreme Court authorized the release of Trump-era White House documents to the House committee investigating Jan. 6. The committee already had possession of the messages when Justice Thomas voted in the January 2022 case.

What is most ironic about the impeachment demands, Turley noted, is that Democrats have previously praised efforts questioning the electoral legitimacy of former President George W. Bush.

But the demands also pose a significant problem, one the Founding Fathers sought to avoid.

"The calls for the impeachment of Justice Thomas are ludicrous but there is nothing laughable about the impeachment addiction fueling this frenzy," Turley wrote. "People of good faith can disagree on the need of Thomas to recuse himself from certain Commission-related cases.

"However, impeaching Thomas based on these grounds would expose all justices to the threat of politically motivated impeachments as majorities shift in Congress," he explained. "That is precisely what the Framers sought to avoid under our Constitution."

Democrats demand Clarence Thomas be impeached over wife's text messages: 'I want Anita Hill to get his position'



Democrats have gathered their pitchforks and are demanding that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas resign — or be impeached — because of text messages belonging to his wife.

What happened?

The Washington Post and CBS News reported late Thursday that Mark Meadows, chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, handed over a trove of documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots that included text messages he exchanged with Justice Thomas' wife, Virginia, also known as Ginni.

None of the text messages cite Justice Thomas or refer to the Supreme Court, nor were any messages sent on Jan. 6. Most of the messages were exchanged in November 2020, while one was sent after Jan. 6.

The text messages show that Ginni encouraged Trump's staff to continue fighting against the certification of election results throughout the first three weeks of November.

"Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!...You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History," Ginni wrote to Meadows in a Nov. 10, 2020 message, according to the Post.

What are Democrats & the left saying?

Despite absolutely zero evidence that Justice Thomas has committed any wrongdoing or engaged in any behavior necessitating his removal from the Supreme Court, Democrats seized on the news about his wife to demand that Thomas be impeached.

  • Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.): "Clarence Thomas needs to be impeached."
  • Kathy Griffin: "I want Clarence Thomas to get impeached, because you CAN impeach Supreme Court Justice, and then I want Anita Hill to get his position on the Supreme Court."
  • NY Times writer Jamelle Bouie: "[F]eels like this is the stuff you impeach a supreme court justice for i don’t know."
  • Far-left org Take Back The Court: "Clarence Thomas must immediately resign from his seat on the Supreme Court. If he refuses, Congress must move to impeach him. The integrity of the Court, our judicial system, and our democracy as a whole depends on it."
  • Actor Rob Reiner: "In a functioning Democracy, Clarence Thomas would be Impeached."
  • Far-left org Meidas Touch: "Thomas must be impeached."

Aside from giving Democrats the ammunition against Justice Thomas they have always wanted, Democrats and progressive activists point to Justice Thomas opposing the release of Trump-era White House documents about the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol to the House committee investigating the riot as evidence of purported unethical behavior.

Thomas was the only Supreme Court justice who voted against allowing the release of the documents, which Trump had attempted to thwart.

However, no evidence shows that Justice Thomas was in any way influenced by his wife's political activism.

In fact, as CNN correspondent Ryan Nobles observed, the text messages appear to be completely unrelated to the Supreme Court decision in which Justice Thomas was the lone dissenting vote.

Those documents.. of which most have not been revealed.. were official White House communications and records, not personal communications which these texts appear to be. (3)
— Ryan Nobles (@Ryan Nobles) 1648164679

Justice Thomas and his wife have long maintained that they keep their careers separate, and importantly, they refuse to discuss work-related matters to prevent accusations of unethical behavior.

"Like so many married couples, we share many of the same ideals, principles, and aspirations for America," Ginni Thomas told the Washington Free Beacon earlier this month. "But we have our own separate careers, and our own ideas and opinions too. Clarence doesn't discuss his work with me, and I don't involve him in my work."

Could Thomas be impeached?

The likelihood that Justice Thomas will be impeached — let alone removed from office — might as well be zero.

Not only is there no evidence that Justice Thomas has committed impeachable offenses, but the U.S. Constitution requires two-thirds approval in the Senate to removed an impeached official. Short of overwhelming evidence against Justice Thomas, the only ways that Thomas is leaving the Supreme Court are through retirement or death.