Clarence Thomas deserves a full Senate investigation and possible impeachment, but Congress likely doesn't have the appetite for that.

As one Democratic House member tells me via text, "Public trust in SC is already bad. A big circus would destroy it completely."

I think that may have the problem exactly backwards: Congress' failure to address the problems with the Supreme Court is what has led to a collapse in public trust. Addressing that corruption will be painful, but necessary.

The alternative is to largely do nothing. A brief investigation into Thomas' conduct, and a report that no one will remember. That allows the cancer of corruption to continue destroying public confidence in the Supreme Court.

Action is the right step. Will Congress listen?

The American people have never faced so clear-cut a case of undisclosed grift as what we see now with Clarence Thomas. And it says a lot about where we are as a nation that lawmakers can acknowledge that and *still* feel no pressure for serious reform.

That Thomas is still planning to preside over cases involving Republican politics -- even after all of this came out -- shows you that the Supreme Court is *way* past the point of caring about credibility.

The Court's @GOP majority is counting on gridlock to protect them.

Also to respond to the reporter DMs, I will say only that the Democratic lawmaker I spoke to is *not* a member of the wonderful New York delegation. So rest easy, Big Apple.

The Supreme Court is facing the same crisis of public trust that England experienced during the "rotten boroughs" era in the early 19th Century.

By ignoring the problem until it became massive, England had no choice but to pass huge disruptive reforms. Same story today.

Back then, the English lost faith in Parliament because their leaders had drawn up "rotten boroughs" that distorted political representation and short-circuited the power of the vote -- all to consolidate power. It took years of activism to finally rip that system out.

In short: it's foolish to hope Thomas will die or retire, and that alone will fix huge cultural/ethical decay at SCOTUS. Avoiding the problem may be easier for lawmakers, but it's catastrophic for the American people.

I'll be writing about ALL of this later this week -- with more comments from Hill Democrats (and maybe even some Republicans!)

Follow along by getting a FREE subscription to my Substack, The Third Degree. See you there: maxburns.substack.com/