The watchdog group Accountable.us & Rep Hank Johson (D-GA) issued a letter calling for #ClarenceThomas’s #recusal from the #Oklahoma case because of his ties to Nicole Garnett, the #NotreDame #law prof, who helped shepherd it.

But unlike #AmyConeyBarrett, Thomas did not #recuse.

Garnett was a clerk for Thomas in the late 1990s & has maintained a close relationship w/ him, which Accountable & Johnson say call into question his objectivity in the case.

It would require the #IRS to initiate an #audit of the justices’ tax returns each year, release the results & make the tax filings public. Nominees to the court would have to disclose 3 yrs of tax returns.

Another measure would allow a two-thirds vote of the court to force a fellow justice to #recuse from a case.

"All of this comes amid the worst #scandals in the court’s #history, which raise serious doubt about the justices’ independence & #integrity (e.g. Samuel #Alito 's #insurrectionist flag flying, #ClarenceThomas' refusal to #recuse himself despite his wife’s participation in the #coup attempt, Thomas’s multiple #financial disclosure violations & receipts of millions of dollars in #gifts). These, coupled with obvious gamesmanship to benefit “their side,” will permanently besmirch this court."

[Video in 2 parts]

Ryan Goodman:

Justice #Alito’s letter explaining his refusal to #recuse in #Jan6th cases may include false statements to #Congress (18 USC §1001)

Watch how credible Alito’s neighbor is in her first TV interview on CNN

She contradicts his account & cites a #police report & witness.

1/
#SCOTUS #law #impartial #bias #ethics #JudicialEthics

…The letters include a much more specific explanation of why #MarthaAnnAlito flew the “#AppealToHeaven” flag at the couple’s vacation home….

#Alito said he “assumed” his wife was flying it for #religious & patriotic reasons. He definitively said neither he or his wife knew the flag was associated w/the “Stop the Steal” & it was not flown in solidarity w/that movement.

The most pivotal question about the #UpsideDown American #flag has yet to be fully answered: #MarthaAnnAlito’s motivation for flying it.

…The Alitos have not explicitly addressed whether the upside-down flag had a connection to #Jan6 or “Stop the Steal,” & Justice #Alito’s comments about his wife’s motivation for flying it have shifted.

…#Alito told Fox News …the neighborhood dispute began when his wife went to speak w/their neighbor Emily Baden in Jan 2021. #MarthaAnnAlito was upset the woman was displaying an anti #Trump sign, w/an expletive, “within 50 feet of where children await the school bus,” as Bream put it on…[social media].

But Fairfax County schools were shuttered at the time because of the coronavirus pandemic & had been since March 2020.

@alexlubertozzi @Nonilex

“#DOJ — including US attorney for #DC, an appointed US special counsel and the solicitor general, all of whom were involved in different ways in the criminal prosecutions underlying these cases and are opposing #Trump’s claims — can petition the other 7 justices to require #Alito & #Thomas to #recuse themselves not as a matter of grace but as a matter of law.”

This can ONLY work if #Garland has a pulse and is not glacially slow to come to the calling of his nation.

Some great #SCOTUS editorial cartoons by Mike Luckovich

@Nonilex

>> Justice #Alito tells #Congress he will NOT #recuse from #Jan6 related cases

#TwoTurds Alito tells Congress #GFY.

>> “As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused”.

If she can refuse his rulings in his household, we should, as a nation, refuse to accept them in our country

#Illegitimate #SCOTUS #GTFO you!

“The same goes for the flying of an #AppealToHeaven flag at Justice #Alito’s vacation house along the NJ shore. Like the #UpsideDown flag, this #flag is viewed by a great many people as a banner of allegiance on #partisan issues that are or could be before #SCOTUS.