Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) dismissed suggestions from members of his party to impeach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as “not realistic” in an interview Sunday.
Durbin, the second-highest-ranking Senate Democrat, made the comments during an interview with Fox News Sunday after being asked about recent calls by liberal lawmakers to impeach Thomas, who has faced criticism over his wife Ginni Thomas’s communications with former President Donald Trump’s team in support of overturning the 2020 election results.
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“I don’t think it’s realistic,” Durbin, who also leads the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the network. “I can tell you, there is, in my mind, a clear conflict of interest when it comes to Justice Thomas and issues related to the Jan. 6 insurrection.”
“His wife is actively involved politically. Going so far as to give direct advice to the president’s chief of staff during this crisis,” he continued. “I would think that Justice Thomas should recuse himself from any decisions that relate to the Jan. 6 episode. Already he was the single vote earlier on a case related to that issue. I think it’s a mistake.”
“As to whether he’s going to be impeached, that is not realistic. But he should show good judgment.”
The associate justice was lambasted over the revelation about his wife, which came after he was the only member of the high court to dissent in a case relating to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation. The case centered on a request by the former president to prevent the release of White House records to the House select committee probing the matter.
Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion while voting to overturn Roe v. Wade, which no other justices signed, that the court should “correct the error” of rulings that protect same-sex marriage and contraception access. Like with Roe, those cases fell under previous due process precedents.
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“For that reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote.
“We have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents,” he continued.
