House Dems. call on Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from Trump ballot case

Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A group of House Democrats urged Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from deciding whether Donald Trump should remain absent from Colorado's Republican primary ballot, citing his wife's connections to the former president and the Jan. 6 assault on Congress.

Trump last month was disqualified from the state's 2024 ballot by the Colorado Supreme Court under the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which bans anyone who has engaged in insurrection against the United States from holding elected office. On Wednesday, the former president asked the nation's highest court to intervene. The Colorado Republican Party has also appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.

Clarence Thomas' wife, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, is a conservative activist and was a supporter of Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election. She was present at the Jan. 6, 2021, "Stop the Steal" rally at the Capitol where the then-outgoing president spoke before the crowd attacked Congress in an attempt to prevent Joe Biden being certified as the 46th president of the United States.

The House Democrats, led by Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia, told Clarence Thomas in a letter Thursday that his wife's connections to the cause of Trump being booted from the Colorado Republican primary ballot is reason enough for him to remove himself from the case.

"We must urge you to recuse yourself from any involvement in Anderson v. Griswold, because your impartiality is reasonably questioned by substantial numbers of fair-minded members of the public, who believe your wife Virginia ('Ginni') Thomas' substantial involvement in the events leading up to the January 6 insurrection, and the financial incentive it presents for your household if President Trump is re-elected, are disqualifying," eight House Democrats said in the letter, while referring to the case by name.

In the letter, the Democrats state that not only was the justice's wife present at the infamous rally but "she was instrumental in planning it and bringing the insurrectionists to the Capitol" as she was one of nine board members of the political group that helped lead the so-called Stop the Steal movement, which promoted false claims that the election was stolen from Trump.

"It is unthinkable that you could be impartial in deciding whether an event your wife personally organized qualifies as an 'insurrection' that would prevent someone from holding the office of president," the Democrats said.

The letter continues that it would be hard to believe that his wife's fervent support of Trump did not affect him and would not affect any legal opinion he would give on the matter.

Last month, Johnson led another group of Democrats in sending Clarence Thomas a letter asking him to recuse himself from the federal government's criminal case against Trump because of his wife.

The former president has been indicted by the federal government on charges related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 general election, and the former president has asked the Supreme Court to consider his claims of immunity from federal prosecution because of the office once he held.

Clarence Thomas recused himself in October in a case concerning former Trump lawyer John Eastman, marking the first time he has done so in connection to the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.

"Fewer than half of all Americans trust the Supreme Court, and that number will fall even lower if you rule in this case," the Democrats warned Thursday.

"To protect the court's integrity and the legitimacy of its decision in this monumental case, you must recuse yourself."

Reps. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, Glenn Ivey of Maryland, Gerald Connolly of Virginia, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Dan Goldman and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York were also signatories to the letter.