The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate is now facing a renewed wave of calls to rein in rogue Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — not just from constituents, but from fellow Congressional Democrats.
In a Saturday report for the Washington Post, the paper's Justin Jouvenal and Tobi Raji wrote that the latest news about Thomas' previously undisclosed flights on far-right billionaire Harlan Crow's jet has Senate Democrats feeling pressure from their base to respond with a heightened degree of urgency. Thomas' unreported gifts, along with leaked audio of Alito agreeing with an undercover progressive activist posing as a devout Catholic that America needs to return to a place of "godliness," are now being seen by Democrats as a catalyst to escalate Supreme Court accountability efforts.
The decision of whether to conduct hearings is up to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), who has so far been criticized as slow to react. He recently flatly said that regardless of the calls to issue subpoenas for Alito and Thomas, it was "not going to happen."
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"Quite honestly, subpoenaing a Supreme Court justice is not in the cards," Durbin told HuffPost on Saturday, saying that his progressive critics should "consider the actual rules of the Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee."
Durbin argued that in order to get a subpoena out of the Judiciary Committee, it would require either Republican cooperation or a clear majority vote, which he said he may not be able to whip. And even if a subpoena were to clear the committee-level hurdle, it would still need 60 votes on the Senate floor to be enforced, which wouldn't be possible with unified Republican opposition.
“If they tear it up in front of me, there’s little I can do other than say, ‘You’re missing an opportunity if you have a story to tell,’” Durbin said. “That’s the best we can do.”
However, Democrats in the House are busy attempting to move Supreme Court accountability legislation through their respective body. Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) are planning to roll out a bill that would cap the limit for gifts to Supreme Court justices at $50 — the same amount Congress is held to.
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"The Supreme Court is currently facing a great crisis of legitimacy and it is a crisis of its own making," Ocasio-Cortez told the Post.
After the news emerged of pro-insurrectionist flags being flown outside of Justice Alito's homes in Alexandria, Virginia and Long Beach Township, New Jersey, both Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island) called on the justice to recuse himself from cases involving former President Donald Trump and the 2020 election. He has refused to do so, and is expected to weigh in on a decision to be publicized later this month regarding Trump's absolute broad presidential immunity argument.
Thomas, in the meantime, has been exposed for taking even more trips on a billionaire Republican donor's private jet than was previously disclosed. ProPublica reported earlier this week that billionaire Harlan Crow allowed Thomas to use his personal jet on two separate trips to Indonesia and to the Bohemian Grove. This is a pattern for Thomas, as he has continuously omitted gifts from Crow on previous ethics disclosure forms.
Click here to read the Post's full report (subscription required), and click here to read HuffPost's reporting.
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