Impeach Justice Clarence Thomas Petition Jumps After Scandals

A petition to impeach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has seen spikes in signatures on several occasions that reports of scandals have broken, suggesting rising discontent over his position.

The petition, organized by the public policy advocacy group MoveOn, is as of Monday approaching 1.35 million signatures. It calls for Thomas to either resign his post or face impeachment, possible under the U.S. Constitution, but requires a vote by the House of Representatives. The petition accuses him of pushing a right-wing agenda while accepting "hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from a right-wing megadonors" and questions his ethics. Newsweek emailed the Supreme Court for comment on Monday.

On June 24, 2022, Thomas wrote in an opinion piece that the Supreme Court "should reconsider" its previous rulings on granting rights to contraception and same-sex marriage under the constitution. It was the same day the court voted to reverse Roe vs. Wade, allowing individual states to decide their own laws around abortion.

By then, the petition had already been going for several months, and as of June 11 that year, had garnered nearly 220,000 signatures. By early evening on June 24, this had risen to nearly 244,000, and by June 28, it had increased by over 92,000 to 336,338. Nearly a month later, on July 21, it had spiraled to 1,219,558 signatures.

Between February 6 and April 6 this year, the petition increased its tally by fewer than 200 votes. That day, ProPublica produced a report that found Thomas and his wife had taken undisclosed trips, and other benefits, paid for by Harlan Crow, a Republican megadonor.

The vacations reportedly took place over a period of 20 years, and were not disclosed among the financial gifts that Thomas received. The judge later released a statement, describing Crow and his wife as "among our dearest friends." Thomas added that he was "advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable."

Almost two months later, on June 2, the petition had gained over 33,000 signatures and stood at 1,293,357 in total.

Between then and July 3, the rate of signatures died down again, with around 1,100 added over the period, reaching 1,294,478. Then, on July 9, the New York Times reported that Thomas had received a range of gifts from wealthy friends through the prestigious Horatio Alger Association.

By July 21, the petition had reached 1,320,585 signatures, up over 26,000 from the start of the month.

The petition has continued to gain tens of thousands of signatures since then. However, it is unclear if a Senate Finance Committee report regarding Thomas led to another spike in signatures.

The report said Thomas failed to repay a significant portion of a $267,230 loan given to him in 1999 by healthcare businessman Anthony Welters. The justice used this money to purchase a luxury RV. Welters told the Times: "I loaned a friend money, as I have other friends and family."

"The loan was never forgiven," Elliot Berke, Thomas's attorney, told Reuters at the time. "Any suggestion to the contrary is false. The Thomases made all payments to Mr. Welters on a regular basis until the terms of the agreement were satisfied in full."