Maryland Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin called on seven Supreme Court justices, with the help of President Joe Biden's Department of Justice, to force Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas to recuse themselves from the Jan. 6-related cases.
Raskin, in an opinion column for The New York Times, wrote that it "seems unfathomable that the two justices could get away with deciding for themselves whether they can be impartial in ruling" on certain cases.
The lawmaker, as do other Democrats, called on Thomas and Alito to recuse themselves from cases connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol.
Democrats claim Thomas should recuse himself because of his wife Ginni Thomas' alleged support for former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
They say Alito should step aside on similar cases because flags associated with Jan. 6 have flown at his Virginia home and New Jersey beach home; the justice said his wife was responsible for flying the flags.
Raskin, ranking member on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, wrote in his Wednesday column that the justices could be forced to recuse from Jan. 6 cases.
"The U.S. Department of Justice … can petition the other seven justices to require Justices Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves not as a matter of grace but as a matter of law," Raskin wrote.
"The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland can invoke two powerful textual authorities for this motion: the Constitution of the United States, specifically the due process clause, and the federal statute mandating judicial disqualification for questionable impartiality, 28 U.S.C. Section 455."
The lawmaker added that the "statute requires potentially biased judges throughout the federal system to recuse themselves at the start of the process to avoid judicial unfairness and embarrassing controversies and reversals."
Raskin also suggested Chief Justice John Roberts and the other justices should raise the matter of Alito and Thomas' recusal on their own.
Although many Republicans have accused the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's New York criminal trial of partisan rulings, Raskin makes no mention or comparison in his column to Judge Juan Merchan.
Among the cases from which Democrats want Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves is Trump v. United States, in which the court must decide if Trump has any immunity from prosecution in the context of the 2020 election case brought by special counsel Jack Smith, the Washington Examiner reported.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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