Two Democrat Senate committee leaders have called for a special counsel investigation into Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, (D-OR), and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, (D-RI), have called for a probe to investigate potential violations of federal tax and ethics laws by Justice Thomas.
The senators claim that evidence points to Thomas having “secretly accepted gifts and income potentially worth millions of dollars” since becoming a Supreme Court justice.
According to Wyden and Whitehouse, the evidence also suggests Thomas has committed “numerous willful violations of federal ethics and false-statement laws.”
In July 2022, Thomas left his position at George Washington University.
Thomas’ decision was announced at the time by co-instructor Professor Gregory Maggs.
Maggs, in an email to students, wrote, “Unfortunately, I am writing with some sad news: Justice Thomas has informed me that he is unavailable to co-teach the seminar this fall,” Maggs said “I know that this is disappointing. I am very sorry.”
“The seminar has not been canceled but I will now be the sole instructor,” he added in the group email.
A change.org petition calling for Justice Thomas’ removal garnered over 11,000 signatures at the time.
The change.org petition read: “With the recent Supreme Court decision that has stripped the right to bodily autonomy of people with wombs, and with his explicit intention to further strip the rights of queer people and remove the ability for people to practice safe sex without fear of pregnancy, it is evident that the employment of Clarence Thomas at George Washington University is completely unacceptable. While also factoring in his wife’s part in the attempted coup in January of 2021, Judge Thomas is actively making life unsafe for thousands of students on our campus (not to mention thousands of campuses across the country). Make your voice heard and help us kick Clarence Thomas out of Foggy Bottom.”
Thomas authored a groundbreaking concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the previous Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood decisions.
Justice Thomas also suggested reconsidering “all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous.’”
