U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) is calling on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to resign over allegations of corruption spanning more than two decades. He is the first sitting U.S. Senator to do so.
“I will say what needs to be said: Clarence Thomas should resign from the Supreme Court of the United States. His reputation is unsalvageable,” Sen. Markey, flanked by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA).
“It is evident that he cannot judge right from wrong, so why should he be judging the country’s most important cases on its highest court?” Sen. Markey asked.
The three Massachusetts Democrats spoke as they kicked off a 20-city bus tour Monday from Boston, focusing on strengthening ethics in the nation’s highest court, as the Boston Globe reports.
“The court must take action in order to rebuild its legitimacy by enforcing its own recusal rules, adopting a binding code of conduct, strengthening restrictions on gifts of privately funded travel, and increasing the transparency of justices’ financial dealings and interests,” Markey also said.
Senators Markey and Warren also called for expanding the Supreme Court by four seats, to 13, which would more accurately represent the nation and its current judicial system.
”I don’t want to mess with the Supreme Court,” Senator Warren told reporters. “But the Supreme Court is messing with our democracy. Make no mistake, the Supreme Court faces a crisis of legitimacy. The Constitution gives Congress the ability to check the Supreme Court’s power, including by changing its size, no constitutional amendment.”
Rep. Pressely added, ”I’m here with my partners in government and community to organize and mobilize to enact common sense reforms to our highest judicial court.”
“We deserve and demand a Supreme Court representative of the people and capable of upholding the law.”
READ MORE: Top Senate Democrat Goes After Clarence Thomas’ Billionaire Benefactor
The tour is being organized by a coalition of more than 30 progressive groups called the Just Majority campaign, The New York Times reported, as more see the increasingly urgent need for judicial reform in the wake of the Roberts Court’s rulings on abortion and its now-infamous shadow docket.
“This is new to us,” Mini Timmaraju, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, told The Times.
Timmaraju “said her organization’s decision to join the campaign was driven in part by recent court decisions on abortion rights, gun control and other issues that run counter to well-documented public opinion.”
“We feel a special obligation to jump in now,” she also said. “It feels the time is right to start having this conversation about expansion. Everything has to be on the table.”
Watch a clip of Senator Markey’s remarks, and the full event video below or at this link.