- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said she will introduce articles of impeachment against the Supreme Court justices.
- The congressman characterized the move as an effort to “protect our country” from “authoritarian rule.”
- This comes after the court ruled in favor of former President Donald Trump in his immunity lawsuit.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is prepared to impeach Supreme Court justices following the court’s victory in former President Donald Trump’s immunity case.
The New York Democrat wrote that the Supreme Court is “engulfed in a corruption crisis that is out of control” and that it is “Congress’s responsibility to protect the nation from this authoritarian grip.”
The House is due to return from recess next Monday.
The Supreme Court is embroiled in a corruption crisis that is out of control. Today’s ruling is an attack on American democracy. It is the responsibility of Congress to protect the country from this authoritarian rule. I will be introducing articles of impeachment when I return home.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2024
It was not immediately clear which justices the congressman was seeking to impeach, but he had previously suggested Justice Clarence Thomas should be impeached, including those who have business at the court, for failing to disclose lavish trips paid for by Republican billionaires.
The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the president has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for most official acts, a ruling that Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested would open the door for presidents to assassinate political opponents.
Ocasio-Cortez’s impeachment charges are unlikely to produce any results in the near future because the House is controlled by Republicans and even Democratic leaders are not entirely on board with the idea that judges should be impeached.
In a statement after the ruling, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats would “engage in aggressive oversight and legislative efforts on the Supreme Court to ensure that the far-right majority upholds the Constitution.”
But the act of introducing articles of impeachment represents a significant escalation in Democrats’ efforts to increase oversight of the Supreme Court, which has faced a number of ethics scandals in recent years and issued a string of conservative opinions overturning decades of precedent, including the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The last (and only) time a Supreme Court justice was impeached was 220 years ago, in 1804, when an attempt was made to remove Justice Samuel Chase from his seat over his handling of two politically sensitive cases.