Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin (D) said conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should excuse himself from ruling on any cases involving former President Donald Trump’s ability to remain on the 2024 presidential ballot.
If he decides not to recuse himself, Raskin suggested there should be actions to force the justice to be prevented from joining an opinion.
It comes as several states are challenging or ruling to disqualify Trump from their ballots because of his role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled this month that under Clause 3 of the 14th Amendment, Trump cannot run for president because he ‘engaged in insurrection.’ Republicans in the state immediately challenged the case and asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take it on, claiming that Trump can’t be removed from the ballot because he has not been charged with insurrection.
Raskin joins other Democrats who say Justice Thomas cannot fairly rule on the case because of his wife Ginni Thomas’ comments supporting Trump in the wake of the Capitol attack and pushing the claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged or stolen.
Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin seems to think there should be actions to take against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas if he does not recuse himself from 14th Amendment cases on disqualifying Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot
Now, Rep. Raskin is taking it further by questioning what will happen if Thomas decides not to recuse himself.
‘He should – oh, he absolutely should recuse himself,’ Raskin told CNN State of the Union host Dana Bash on Sunday, adding: ‘The question is, what do we do if he doesn’t recuse himself?’
He lamented that while the ‘Supreme Court has developed what they’re describing as a code of ethics… they’re deciding for themselves again whether they’re in violation of their code of ethics.’
The Maryland Democrat said ‘anybody looking at this [case] in any kind of dispassionate, reasonable way would say, if your wife was involved in the ‘big lie’ and claiming that Donald Trump had actually won the presidential election and had been agitating for that and participating in the events leading up to January 6, that you shouldn’t be participating in’ a case involving the ex-president.
The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority – meaning that, even if Thomas did recuse himself, it’s likely that the high court would rule on the side of Trump and Republicans to keep him on the ballot.
Three of the nine sitting justices on the court were appointed by Trump; Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
Raskin said there is an ‘urgency’ for the Supreme Court to act’ when it comes to Colorado’s case.
Trump will remain on the primary election ballotin Colorado for the time being – unless the U.S. Supreme Court decides not to take the appeal on or rules that states can remove the ex-president from the 2024 ballot under the 14th Amendment insurrection clause.
Democrats argue that comments and actions taken by Justice Thomas’ wife Ginni Thomas ‘raise serious questions’ about her husband’s ‘ability to be or even to appear impartial in any cases before the Supreme Court involving the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection’
‘I think that the urgency is for the Supreme Court to act,’ Raskin told CNN. ‘But I think it’s going to be tough for some of them, if they want to keep Trump on the ballot, if they’re falling for the argument that this is undemocratic.’
He also conceded that removing Trump from state ballots could only bolster his support and give into his claims he is a ‘political martyr.’
Raskin isn’t the only one bothered by Thomas’ potential future rulings on the case.
Eight House Democrats wrote a letter to Thomas on December 15 ramping up pressure for him to step back from cases involving the former president’s role in the January 6 Capitol riot.
‘We strongly implore you to exercise your discretion and recuse yourself from this and any other decisions in the case of United States v. Trump,’ wrote Rep. Hank Johnson, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee’s Court subcommittee – along with seven other Democrats.
The group argued Ginni Thomas’s actions after the election ‘raise serious questions’ about her husband’s ‘ability to be or even to appear impartial in any cases before the Supreme Court involving the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection.’