On Sunday, lawmakers from Maryland accused Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of “putting a target” on Supreme Court justices when he said that Justice Clarence Thomas should stay out of cases related to former President Donald Trump’s access to the 2024 primary vote. This caused outrage on social media.
Trump kicked off the primary vote in Colorado and Maine not long ago. He was the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. On December 19, the Colorado Supreme Court said that Trump could not be on the ballot because, according to the 14th Amendment, he was not allowed to hold federal office because of his acts during the riot in the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Using the same reason, Maine Democratic Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Thursday that Trump would not be able to run for office.
The former president has said he did not participate in an uprising during the riot in the Capitol. Not only that, but his campaign has also said it will fight the choices made in Colorado and Maine. During this time, the Colorado Republican Party sent a 34-page petition to the U.S. Supreme Court asking them to restore Trump. They said that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment does not apply to the president’s office.
Raskin, who used to teach constitutional law, was on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday when host Dana Bash asked him if any Supreme Court judges should step down if they were to take on the case.
“Finally, the Supreme Court has come up with an ethics code…”But I think that anyone looking at this in a reasonable and unbiased way would say that you shouldn’t be involved if your wife was involved in the Big Lie that said Donald Trump could have won the election and had been pushing for that and taking part in the events leading up to January 6,” the congressman replied.
Bash spoke up and said, “So he should step down?”
“Oh, he should step down,” Raskin responded, “The question is what do we do if he doesn’t step down?”
Raskin was talking about Justice Clarence Thomas. Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, Thomas’s wife, was criticized for what she did during the riot. For Ginni, a Trump fan and conservative activist, the former president’s “Big Lie” that Joe Biden and the Democrats stole the 2020 election from Trump through widespread voter fraud was true. Other Trump supporters also believed it. There is no proof that the 2020 election was rigged.
John Hasson, an X user, wrote, “Chuck Schumer put a target on Justice Kavanaugh’s back before the Dobbs ruling, and then someone tried to kill Kavanaugh.” It looks like Jamie Raskin has set his sights on Justice Thomas…”
Nicholas Roske, a 26-year-old guy from California, was charged with trying to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in June 2022. All charges against Roske were dropped. An FBI statement says Roske was mad about the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and the leaked draft of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.