Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday called for the creation of a code of ethics for Supreme Court justices after the emergence of Jan. 6-related text messages by Ginni Thomas.
The conservative activist and the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas sent the messages to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows about overturning the 2020 election.
Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Richard Blumenthal, as well as Reps. Hank Johnson, Mondaire Jones, and David Cicilline, argued during a press conference at the Capitol that legislation to create a code of ethics for justices and putting in place an enforcement mechanism for the court is “timely” due to the controversy.
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“The Constitution guarantees Article Three judges life tenure only during good behavior,” Jones said. “But that it’s not what we’ve seen lately, unfortunately, and that’s not just true for Justice Clarence Thomas.”
Ginni Thomas reportedly sent Meadows a series of texts about keeping Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election during Trump’s efforts to overturn the results. Some of the text messages appeared to embrace elements of the QAnon conspiracy theory, including subjecting elected officials and reporters to military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay for alleged crimes.
After the publication of the texts, many Democrats called on Thomas to recuse himself from cases related to the Jan. 6 riot or those involving former President Donald Trump, arguing that considering these cases would present a conflict of interest.
Most Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, defended Thomas, arguing his wife’s political views have no bearing on his work on the high court and dismissing the scandal as a pressure campaign designed to force Thomas to retire so he could be replaced with a more liberal justice.
Whitehouse argued that more oversight of the court is necessary and that there should be a process for determining when a justice should recuse themselves, rather than leaving it up to the judge themselves.
“A Supreme Court justice is now not required to address why he or she doesn’t think he or she needs to recuse,” Whitehouse said. “And if a party thinks that they really ought to overuse, they have no recourse.”
Blumenthal argued that the Supreme Court is a co-equal branch of government, and “we have been lax in our demands on the court.”
“For decades, the United States Supreme Court was housed in the basement of this building,” Blumenthal said. “For decades, it was invisible for most Americans. This effort is to take the courts out of the shadows and have them follow the same rules as other branches of government.”
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The press conference was held in the same room as a Republican press conference scheduled shortly thereafter. Sen. John Kennedy arrived at the room early, and the Democratic lawmakers asked if he was there to lend bipartisan support to their bill. The Republican senator from Louisiana replied that he would need “three to five business days” to review the text.
