Democrats call on Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from January 6 Supreme Court cases

Washington — A bicameral group of Democrats are calling on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself from future cases that come before the high court involving the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol and explain why he failed to step aside from earlier court fights involving the attack and efforts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Two dozen House and Senate Democrats, including members of the Judiciary Committees in both chambers, made the request in a letter sent Monday to Thomas and Chief Justice John Roberts. The group said recent revelations from the Washington Post and CBS News of text messages Thomas' wife, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, exchanged with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows regarding the 2020 presidential election "raise serious questions" about Thomas' participation in the earlier cases given the potential conflicts of interest.

"[G]iven the recent disclosures about Ms. Thomas's efforts to overturn the election and her specific communications with White House officials about doing so, Justice Thomas's participation in cases involving the 2020 election and the January 6th attack is exceedingly difficult to reconcile with federal ethics requirements," wrote the Democrats, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington. Other signatories included House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York and Senate Judiciary subcommittee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.