Dear MoveOn member,
On April 25—just two weeks from now—the Supreme Court will hear a case that could determine whether Donald Trump can be held accountable for his crimes.1
As Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said during recent oral arguments in another Trump case, it is a “fundamental precept of our constitutional order that a president isn’t above the law.”2
It is one of our nation’s long-held and most respected principles that no one is above the law. But given our highly partisan Supreme Court, this particular case could overturn this bedrock principle for Trump and all future presidents.
That’s because this Supreme Court’s rulings become important legal precedent. It means other courts will make decisions in cases with similar issues based on how the Supreme Court has ruled. And precedents can last decades—or even hundreds of years.
If the Supreme Court issues a decision declaring that Trump is immune from prosecution, it will put the American people at risk for future dictators, authoritarians, and strongman presidents.
The checks and balances that keep America strong include a president’s credible fear that they are not immune from prosecution for all acts, no matter how criminal, especially acts in their personal capacity, for their own benefit.
But now, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who is directly connected to the Trump case, is poised to help determine how it is decided.
Thomas must recuse himself—according to longstanding judicial ethics and the Supreme Court’s new code of ethics, which demands recusal in cases where a justice’s impartiality might be reasonably questioned.3
MoveOn is planning to take over the front page of The Washington Post with hard-hitting ads calling on Thomas to recuse himself—if we can raise $75,000.
Will you start a $5 monthly donation to help MoveOn take over the front page of The Washington Post and then help us keep the pressure on until Thomas recuses himself from all cases involving Trump and the insurrection?
No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.
We can’t afford to cut back on our 2024 election work to pay for this hard-hitting homepage takeover, so it’s crucial that we raise the funds from MoveOn members.
With your help, we will make it loud and clear in these ads that Thomas must recuse himself.
We know that under the right circumstances, public pressure works. In October, Thomas stepped aside from a case involving his former clerk, John Eastman.4 Eastman had corresponded with Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, about the “stop the steal” efforts to falsely claim that the 2020 election was stolen, and he had advocated a fringe legal theory that Vice President Mike Pence could block the certification of President Biden’s Electoral College win.5
Now, we face a situation with even higher stakes. And it’s imperative that Thomas step aside again. But with the Trump case being heard just two weeks from now, we can only up the pressure on Thomas with a hard-hitting front-page takeover in The Washington Post, calling on him to recuse himself, if we raise $75,000 in the next week.
Will you start a $5 monthly donation to power MoveOn’s urgent campaign to pressure Thomas to recuse himself from Trump’s Supreme Court criminal case and to keep the pressure on until Thomas recuses himself from all cases involving Trump and the insurrection?
No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.
It’s crucial that we take action in moments like this. It may seem like long odds that we can get Thomas to recuse himself from this case, but we have to try. He may, if we pressure him hard enough. After all, we saw him do it before.
And demanding his recusal in this powerful, public way has other benefits. It puts pressure on other justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts, to make decisions that protect America’s democratic institutions—not pave the way for dictators.
The truth is that Supreme Court justices are sensitive to public pressure, and high-profile efforts focused on a specific justice are noticed by other justices. This campaign is a critical part of the broader fight.
America’s guiding principles and the future of our democracy are at stake if Thomas doesn’t recuse himself. Will you start a $5 monthly donation so MoveOn can launch our time-sensitive Washington Post front-page takeover campaign and then keep up the work to hold Thomas accountable for his corruption?
No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.
Two years ago, MoveOn launched a historic and unprecedented campaign to impeach Thomas, which included a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal. We gathered 1.3 million signatures to our petition demanding his impeachment. We were able to launch that campaign and run the ad because of grassroots MoveOn-member support.
And now, in this critical moment, we’re asking MoveOn members to pitch in again and fuel our campaign to hold Thomas accountable on the front page of The Washington Post and then keep up this critical, democracy-saving work.
Will you start a monthly $5 donation today?
No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.
We absolutely cannot afford to cut our election program to run these ads. But these ads are critically necessary. That’s why we need your help to meet our $75,000 goal this week and then power the campaign for as long as it takes.
Thanks for all you do.
–Mohammad, Erik, Alexis, Kelsey, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “Clarence Thomas’s conflict is clear — he must recuse himself from the Trump immunity case,” The Hill, March 4, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/189238?t=10&akid=380219%2E37680734%2EFroAKa
2. “Justice Kagan Says ‘President Isn’t Above The Law’ as Trump, New York Prosecutors Battle Over Tax Returns,” Newsweek, May 12, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/189317?t=12&akid=380219%2E37680734%2EFroAKa
3. “Clarence Thomas Faces Calls to Recuse Himself From Jan. 6 Trump Cases,” Yahoo! News, December 21, 2023
https://act.moveon.org/go/189318?t=14&akid=380219%2E37680734%2EFroAKa
4. “Clarence Thomas recuses himself as Supreme Court rejects ex-Trump lawyer John Eastman’s appeal,” NBC News, October 2, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/186370?t=16&akid=380219%2E37680734%2EFroAKa
5. “Virginia Thomas urged White House chief to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, texts show,” The Washington Post, March 24, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/161382?t=18&akid=380219%2E37680734%2EFroAKa
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No, I’m sorry, I can’t make a monthly donation.
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