AFJ Action Calls For Accountability After Ginni Thomas Revelations

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 29, 2022 – In recent weeks, incredible revelations have come to light regarding the political activity of Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Evidence shows that Ginni Thomas was intimately involved in President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including direct coordination with senior administration staff inside the Trump White House. Ginni Thomas also admitted that she attended the January 6 rally where the insurrection began. In at least some of her communications with President Trump’s then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Ginni Thomas appears to have referenced discussing her activities directly with Justice Thomas.

Justice Clarence Thomas has repeatedly refused to recuse himself from ongoing litigation resulting from the January 6th insurrection, and he was the only Supreme Court justice to vote against the Court’s January ruling that President Trump must turn over important White House records related to the insurrection. It is now clear that at least some of these records directly implicate his wife in potentially criminal activities. As such, Alliance for Justice Action Fund calls for the following:

• Congress must immediately pass legislation establishing an enforceable ethical code of conduct for the U.S. Supreme Court that is equal to or more stringent than the judicial code of ethics for lower court judges.
• Justice Thomas must recuse himself from all cases involving the January 6th insurrection.
• Congress must launch a separate investigation into Ginni Thomas’s involvement in President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including whether or not Justice Thomas had any involvement in these activities.

Alliance for Justice Action Campaign President Rakim H.D. Brooks issued the following statement: 

“The revelations surrounding Ginni Thomas are profoundly disturbing. They should alarm anyone who cares about the sanctity and security of our democracy as well as the Supreme Court’s legitimacy within our system of government.

“Ginni Thomas’s efforts to keep Trump in office were extreme, possibly unlawful, and they call into question whether Justice Thomas, who has sworn to protect our Constitution, may have been indirectly involved in efforts to undermine and overturn fair and free elections. Justice Thomas must recuse himself from any cases even tangentially related to January 6. There is now sufficient publicly available information that would call his impartiality into question.

“AFJ Action renews its call for Congress to pass a law implementing a code of ethics for the justices to follow, just as lower court judges are bound to such a code. Supreme Court justices are not above the law, nor should they be shielded from public accountability for potentially unlawful or corrupt activities. As it stands, however, Supreme Court justices are only accountable to themselves. There must be a check on these obvious and alarming conflicts of interest for our democracy to persevere. Trust in the Supreme Court is already at an all-time low.”