Letter - People Power United joins coalition of 67 organizations that call for the resignation of Justice Clarence Thomas

🗽A well informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny.

People Power United joined other local, state, and national groups to urge Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to resign. Shout out to the Alliance for Justice for leading these efforts. Here is the letter sent on behalf of our membership:

November 1, 2023

The Supreme Court should be the gold standard of judicial ethics, but some justices today, particularly Justice Clarence Thomas, are falling far short of that standard. To begin restoring the Court’s legitimacy, the undersigned 67 organizations call for the resignation of Justice Thomas. We do not take this position lightly. Many of our organizations have never before called for the resignation of a sitting justice.

Over the past six months, revelations around Justice Clarence Thomas’s actions have brought Supreme Court ethics to national attention and alarm. Most recently, ProPublica revealed that Justice Thomas has secretly participated in fundraisers with the Koch brothers’ donor network. Not only did he not disclose his participation, but he has refused to recuse himself from at least one case the Koch network has brought directly before the Court. In fact, revelation of his activities with the Koch network casts a new light on his shift in position in Kochs’ favor on the Chevron doctrine, the issue before the Court in that case. This is amidst a slew of ethical lapses revealed this year.

On April 6, 2023, ProPublica exposed that for years Justice Thomas has accepted luxury travel and lavish gifts from right-wing mega-donor and billionaire, Harlan Crow. They include a voyage to Indonesia aboard Crow's superyacht, likely valued at over $500,000, and were kept hidden from the public eye despite ethics law requiring their disclosure. This is just one example among at least 38 vacations, 26 private jet flights, a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events and numerous other trips and high-value gifts worth millions of dollars that Justice Thomas has accepted from wealthy benefactors in his time on the Court.

But Justice Thomas's ethical breaches extend beyond gifts and travel. He also failed to disclose that Harlan Crow paid the private school tuition of Thomas’s grandnephew, potentially exceeding $150,000. Thomas also did not disclose that Crow purchased property from him, totaling $133,363. This is despite Thomas having previously listed the value of the property as “$15,000 or less.” After the purchase, Crow reportedly allowed Thomas’s mother to continue living in one of the properties rent-free. Many of these failures to disclose violate federal law.

Thomas also neglected to report that his wife Ginni Thomas had been paid tens of thousands of dollars for consulting work by Leonard Leo, who has infamously worked to make the courts more ideological and political. Further reports detailed how, in 2010, Ginni Thomas conspired with Harlan Crow and Leo to leverage the coming Citizens United decision to orchestrate an extreme takeover of the federal judiciary.

For decades Justice Thomas has engaged in corrupt and unethical behavior, devastating the credibility of the Supreme Court. Our justice system can only be fair and just when it is held accountable. Justice Thomas has undermined the very foundation of our judiciary.

Therefore, we call for the immediate resignation of Justice Clarence Thomas.

Alliance for Justice

Accountable.US

Action Together Northeastern PA

American Atheists

Americans for Tax Fairness

Blue Future

Center for Biological Diversity

Center for Popular Democracy Action

Citrus County NOW

Clearinghouse on Women's Issues

Courage California

Court Accountability

Demos

End Citizens United//Let America Vote Action Fund Enough of Gun Violence

Equal Justice Society

Equality Federation

Evergreen Action

Feminist Majority Foundation

Feminists in Action Los Angeles

FL National Organization for Women

FL0365 Pasco County NOW

Forests Forever

Fourth Branch Action

Freedom From Religion Foundation

Get Money Out -- Maryland

Greater Orlando National Organization for Women Greenpeace USA

Illinois NOW

Indiana Task FORCE

Indivisible Marin

Indivisible Santa Fe

Key West Chapter National Organization for Women Lawyers for Good Government

League of Conservation Voters

MoveOn

National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund

New Disabled South

New Pennsylvania Project

NextGen America

Oregonizers

Our Revolution

Patriotic Millionaires

People For the American Way

People Power United

People's Parity Project

Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) Pinellas County National Organization For Women (Florida) Population Connection Action Fund

Progress Arizona

Progressive Democrats of America

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice

Reproaction

Reproductive Freedom For All

Reproductive Rights Coalition

Revolving Door Project

Secure Elections Network

Stand Up America

Take Back the Court Action Fund

The Workers Circle

True North Research

UltraViolet

Venice Resistance

Voices for Progress

Voters of Tomorrow