AOC files articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., introduced articles of impeachment Wednesday against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito over their refusal to recuse themselves from certain cases.

"Absent resignation, they must be removed," Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor, arguing that the two justices pose a threat to the rule of law.

"Because of Alito's and Thomas’s refusals to recuse, everyday Americans cannot, should not and will not believe that these justices, and consequently the court they serve, is working to uphold the Constitution and put the country ahead of their own individual self-interests," she said Wednesday night.

"Reasonable Americans will and do believe that Justices Thomas and Alito are prone and subject to corruption, that the institution failing to punish them is broken and that consequently their impeachment is a constitutional imperative and our congressional duty," she added.

Ocasio-Cortez said both justices had demonstrated a "yearslong pattern of misconduct and failure to recuse in cases bearing their clear personal and financial involvement."

That, she said, "represents an abuse of power and threat to our democracy, fundamentally incompatible with continued service on our nation’s highest court."

The Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the introduction of impeachment articles.

The resolutions were co-sponsored by Reps. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y.

The first charge centers on two controversial flags that were flown outside Alito’s homes — an upside-down American flag and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag. Both