Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) criticized Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’s choice not to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) had asked Roberts to come to a meeting on May 2 about changes to the Supreme Court’s ethics rules. On Tuesday, Roberts turned down the offer. Ocasio-Cortez criticized Roberts’s move as a threat to the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. She said that Roberts was avoiding responsibility by not going before Congress.
“Under Roberts, the Supreme Court has messed up constitutional rights and seen a number of judges make shady deals about money. Now he won’t answer my questions,” she wrote on Twitter. “How does Roberts think the Supreme Court will keep its power if they refuse to be held accountable?”
Ocasio-Cortez has questioned the authority of the Supreme Court more than once since it was reported that Justice Clarence Thomas got gifts that were not made public. She asked that Thomas be taken out of office because of it.
“This has nothing to do with party or politics. This level of corruption is so bad that it’s almost funny. “Thomas must be removed from office,” she tweeted in early April. “Unless something big changes, the Roberts court will be known for this: blatant corruption, the weakening of democracy, and the taking away of human rights.”
Thomas has been criticized a lot for not telling anyone that a rich friend was giving him expensive gifts and sending him on expensive trips.