Forcing Justice Clarence Thomas off the Supreme Court for his mounting financial ethics scandals is likely a pipe dream, Fix the Court director Gabe Roth told MSNBC's Alex Wagner on Friday — but there are still ways of holding him accountable, and more importantly, of setting the standard for future right-wing jurists who admire Thomas that they cannot emulate his behavior.
"What kind of reforms are even possible?" asked Wagner. "I did not realize that [Sen.] Sheldon Whitehouse and Hank Johnson in the House are sending letters to the Judicial Conference of the United States, which is an agency charged with administering the courts, to refer Thomas to the A.G., to Merrick Garland for investigation. Merrick Garland has a lot on his plate. What can be done to fix this?"
"I've called on Garland to appoint a special counsel," said Roth.
"Much like Richard Nixon did for Abe Fortas," said Wagner.
"There you go," Roth agreed. "I think there's a few things. One, there needs to be a stark response no. The reason I say that is Thomas will not be on the Supreme Court for a long time. His acolytes will be on the Supreme Court well into the—"
"Why don't you think he'll be on the court for a long time?" asked Wagner.
"Because he's 74 years old," said Roth. "He's not going to live to 150."
"You don't think he's going to resign?" Wagner added.
"No, no. Of course not," said Roth. "I think the calls of him to resign and impeach are a waste of time, sorry everyone. But I think what we need to do is send a strong message, whether that be investigated by special counsel, investigation by the Judiciary Committee in the Senate and potentially in the House, investigation by the Judicial Conference, fighting Thomas under the law for every omission under the statute of limitations, he could be fined $50,000. So we gotta go back, I think the statute of limitations is about four years, see how many of those in the last four years, we should fine him. We should pass new laws that have a code of conduct that is enforceable and stronger gift, travel, personal hospitality rules like the House and Senate do."
"But I am worried about this next generation of judges and justices, because so many of them look up to Thomas jurisprudentially. I don't want them to be looking up to Thomas ethically," said Roth. "A dozen of them are already in seats in lower court judges. And you know the second that there is President Haley or DeSantis or Hutchinson, Thomas is going to resign, and one of those former clerks will replace him. I don't want them to be Harlan Crow's next project. I think sending stronger messages right now will have ripple effects for generations."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
Gabe Roth explains how to hold Clarence Thomas accountable www.youtube.com
