Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas remained mum after several Democrats in Congress urged him to recuse himself from hearing a case involving former President Donald Trump‘s 2024 ballot eligibility on Thursday.
The nation’s highest court heard the oral arguments in a Colorado case about whether Trump engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and could be disqualified from holding the presidency again. The case hinges on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibits sworn officials from serving in government if they engage in insurrection.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin said via X: “I’m calling for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself in the 14th Amendment case determining if Donald Trump is ineligible for the 2024 ballot. Given questions surrounding his wife’s involvement, Justice Thomas should recuse himself so there’s no question of bias.”
However, Thomas expectedly did not respond or recuse himself before or after the oral arguments on Thursday.
Overall, Thomas has a lower rate of identifying conflicts compared to other justices. Between 2018 and 2023, justices recused themselves in about 3 percent of appeals, but Thomas recused in 0 percent of cases from 2018-2021 and 3 percent in 2022, according to Bloomberg Law. In comparison, last year, Justices Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch recused themselves from 16 percent and 11 percent of cases, respectively.
Yet, many political experts say activities involving his wife, Ginni Thomas, pose a clear conflict of interest for her husband, ABC News reported.
Ginni Thomas admitted she attended the rally in 2021 but started to feel cold and left before the riot erupted. His wife is a longtime conservative activist and staunch supporter of Trump; she helped to lead the “Stop the Steal” campaign to overturn the results.
“Ginni Thomas was a supporter of Donald Trump’s, from pretty early on in his campaign, and she has maintained that support even…
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