Cori Bush calls for ethics rules, bigger Supreme Court after Clarence Thomas revelations

ST. LOUIS — Labeling the nation’s highest court a “cesspool of corruption and misconduct,” U.S. Rep. Cori Bush called Monday for a new U.S. Supreme Court code of ethics and the impeachment of Justice Clarence Thomas following reports the veteran justice accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts from a wealthy benefactor.

Bush joined progressive activists in downtown St. Louis to call for a host of changes to the Supreme Court meant to weaken the conservative supermajority that last year overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision protecting abortion access. Her remarks are part of a pressure campaign from some Democrats to institute ethics rules for the high court or even to remove Thomas following a report Politico published a month ago detailing lavish vacations and other gifts the justice accepted from prominent GOP donor and billionaire Harlan Crow.

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The revelations of Crow’s largesse to the Thomas family adds to the growing ethical questions swirling around the justice. Last year, media outlets obtained text messages from Thomas’s wife, Ginni, urging officials in President Donald Trump’s White House to find ways to nullify the 2020 election results. Clarence Thomas later was the lone justice to side with Trump as the former president sought to block the release of documents to Congress’ Jan. 6 investigative panel. 

Bush, D-St. Louis, spoke as part of a 20-plus-city bus tour from “Just Majority,” a Supreme Court reform initiative from a coalition of 30 or so progressive groups launched last month after the latest Thomas controversy. 

“The current Supreme Court is a lawless institution that is dangerous to our democracy and it is time for Congress to act,” Bush told media gathered on Kiener Plaza Monday afternoon.

Among her calls to action were term limits for Supreme Court justices and a new code of ethics backed by other Democrats. Lower courts have ethics rules that govern gifts and interactions with people impacted by court decisions, but the Supreme Court has no binding code of ethics. 

“Congress has a code of ethics,” Bush said. “So should the Supreme Court.”

She said she also plans to co-sponsor a bill with colleagues that would expand the number of justices on the court, a proposal opponents label “court-packing.” And she reiterated her call for impeachment proceedings against Thomas along with a U.S. Department of Justice investigation.

The calls from Bush and other Democrats to pass Supreme Court ethics reform face long odds in Congress. Republicans have criticized Democrats’ calls for ethics rules as an attempt to delegitimize a court that currently has a solid conservative voting bloc, and the GOP-controlled House is unlikely to take up any bill expanding the court or to vote to impeach a justice that is part of the court’s conservative majority. 

But Bush and other Democrats can still capitalize on plummeting public approval of the court, which had enjoyed a reputation as a trustworthy and nonpartisan American institution until recent years. And Monday’s event continued to highlight the largely unpopular overturning of Roe, which some believe helped to buoy Democrats in last year’s midterm elections.

Mallory Schwarz of pro-choice Missouri spoke alongside Bush about the impact of the last year’s decision ending the Roe precedent. And Brittany Packnett Cunningham, now a national activist and speaker who rose to fame during the Ferguson protests nine years ago, returned to her hometown to speak at the event. 

“When the opponents don’t play by the rules, we have no choice but to change the game,” Packnett Cunningham said. “To establish a code of ethics, to push for the expansion of the Supreme Court.”

Harlan Crow, a billionaire and Republican megadonor, paid for the tuition of Clarence Thomas’ great-nephew, Mark Martin, ProPublica reports.

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