Conservative Supreme Court Justices face impeachment threat as Dems plan next move

US Senate hopeful Graham Platner wants Democrats to “deal with” the Supreme Court if they retake power in November and launch oversight and possible impeachments to remove justices from office.

Amid President Donald Trump’s historic unpopularity, Democrats are heavily favored to retake the House of Representatives and have gained momentum in the Senate, where Platner’s bid to unseat five-term incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) could prove decisive.

But the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority has the potential to effectively veto any significant actions a future Democratic Congress or president may seek to take, despite increasing doubts among the American public about its legitimacy and impartiality.

Its image as an independent arbiter of justice has come under further scrutiny as multiple justices have been embroiled in corruption scandals. This is where Platner believes Democrats could have options.

“There is structural power in the Senate to deal with the Supreme Court,” the 41-year-old Marine-turned-oyster farmer told a crowd of supporters during an event this weekend.

He said that if Democrats get a majority, “at that point, I very much think that we need to be exercising ethics oversight over the court.”

Unlike lower court judges, who must comply with a binding ethics code by avoiding partisan campaigning, disclosing conflicts of interest, and recusing themselves in cases where impartiality may be called into question, Supreme Court justices do not have to adhere to these rules.

Although the Supreme Court did adopt an ethics code for the first time in 2023, it is voluntary, and legal groups like the New York City Bar have described it as unenforceable and far short of what is necessary.

Platner said that “if we held Supreme Court justices to the same standards that we held federal judges, there is a compelling case for the impeachment and removal of at least two.”

While he did not specify which two justices he believed could be impeached, it is highly likely that he was referring to Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, two of the furthest right justices, whom he has said have helped transform the court into a “political action wing... of conservatism.”

In 2023, ProPublica published an investigation exposing that Thomas had, for years, accepted gifts from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, including trips on his private jet and superyacht, as well as $6,000-per-month tuition for his grandnephew. None of these were reported on the justice’s ethics disclosures.

It was also revealed that his wife, Ginni Thomas, was heavily involved with right-wing activist groups with business before the Supreme Court, including those that pushed discredited voter fraud claims to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.

Alito, meanwhile, was revealed to have taken a luxury fishing trip to Alaska with the billionaire hedge fund tycoon Paul Singer, who was directly involved or had financial ties to several entities with business before the court, including a right-wing pro-business group that was pushing to have the court block then-President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness policy.

The justice has also been accused of expressing support for Christian nationalism after a flag was seen flying outside his residence that appeared to express solidarity with the movement and with those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. A documentarian has also published recordings of the justice speaking about how America must be returned to a “place of Godliness.”

Some Democrats have also raised the possibility of impeaching Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of lying during his confirmation hearings in 2018 when he was faced with allegations of sexual assault from a former classmate.

Right-wing control of the Supreme Court over the past decade has fundamentally altered the American political landscape by rolling back advancements to reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, gutting the Voting Rights Act, and hindering environmental regulation.

And as Trump has expressed open contempt for constitutional limits on his power, the court has often indulged him, siding with his administration more than 80% of the time in emergency docket rulings during his second term while granting him broad “immunity” from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.

In addition to impeaching justices, Platner has called for Congress to expand the Supreme Court’s size the next time a Democrat is in the White House, which can be done with a simple majority vote provided the filibuster is suspended.

“But to make that happen,” Platner said, “we need to elect people to the Senate who want to wield power like that, who understand that power matters, that it’s real and you can use it.”