"I can resist everything except for temptation," the Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde wrote in one of his plays.

The Constitution gives the House of Representatives the sole power to impeach all civil officers of the United States. The Republican majority in the House apparently cannot resist the temptation of using it — even when it means doing so as political theater and not as a constitutional duty.

First, they impeached Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary, for "the high crime or misdemeanor" of failing to fix the immigration mess on our southern border. The real high crime was the failure of the House to give Mayorkas the tools and authority to address the crisis. A bipartisan bill laid out a solution but was pulled back at the behest of former President Donald Trump. House Republicans were, Homeland Security spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said, "trampling on the Constitution for political gain rather than working to solve the serious challenges at our border."

Nor could House Republicans resist the urge to begin impeachment proceedings aimed at President Joe Biden. GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz and his colleagues voted to investigate the Biden family for taking "bribes from corrupt foreigners." To make these accusations, they relied on the testimony of an informant with ties to Russian intelligence who was eventually arrested and charged with lying to the FBI. As Gaetz admitted to CNN, "A few of those characterizations might have been a little oversauced."

Perhaps I can make a suggestion to House Republicans: Why not use your constitutional power to impeach a high official who secretly took funds not from foreigners, but from Americans? Members of the House, may I introduce you to the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court, Justice Clarence Thomas?

According to an investigation by the independent nonprofit ProPublica, Thomas accepted "at least 38 destination vacations, including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas; 26 private jet flights, plus an additional eight by helicopter; a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events, typically perched in the skybox; two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast."

Texas real estate billionaire Harlan Crow was especially generous in funding Thomas' vacations, private jet flights, gifts, the purchase of his mother's house in Georgia and tuition payments to his grandnephew. In 1997, Thomas reported the gift of a private plane flight from Crow. After the gift became public in 2004, Thompson stopped disclosing gifts, including Crow's. Unsurprisingly, in the Supreme Court case Citizens United v. FEC, Thomas provided the decisive vote in permitting widespread use of "dark money" in political campaigns by undisclosed donors.

Thomas also borrowed over a quarter million dollars to buy a luxury RV from a friend. According to the Senate Finance Committee, it appears the principal on the loan was forgiven. Ron Wyden, the chair of the committee, said on the Senate floor, "I am working to learn whether he paid the taxes he was supposed to — taxes that any American is legally required to pay. Justice Thomas refuses to respond."

While Thomas accepted gifts and vacations worth millions and failed to report them, his colleague on the bench Justice Elena Kagan turned down lox and bagels from her high school classmates for fear of any appearance of corruption.

Thomas's wife, Ginnie, wrote to Wisconsin state legislators to reject Biden's victory in the state after the November 2020 election. She urged the appointment of fake electors. "Please stand strong in the face of political and media pressure ... And then please take action to ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen for our state." A D.C. grand jury has charged that Trump and his coconspirators organized a "fraudulent" slate of electors in Wisconsin and other states. Thomas shows no signs of recusing himself from motions and decisions that could affect his wife's status as one of those coconspirators. As Hofstra professor of law James Sample said of Justice Thomas: "He could be ruling on a case that could determine whether or not the events his wife participated in amounted to an insurrection against the United States of America."

The stench surrounding the Supreme Court is not only due to Thomas. The wife of Chief Justice John Roberts has allegedly made more than $10 million from her services to prominent law firms. At least one of them argued a case before the court. Justice Brett Kavanagh's nomination was rammed through the Senate without a thorough investigation of whether he lied in his testimony regarding allegations of heavy drinking and sexual assault. Nominee Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed for a seat on the Supreme Court by the Senate with three months left in the term of Donald Trump, after the GOP Senate had refused to confirm nominee Merrick Garland because Barack Obama's term had only 10 months left.

No wonder the Gallup Poll shows disapproval of the Court has doubled from 29% in 2000 to 58% in 2023. Laws or even constitutional amendments setting forth term limits, strong ethical rules, procedures for the investigations and hearings of nominees and strict standards for conflicts of interest are all needed, even if not imminent.

Hearings on the impeachment of Thomas would be more than theater. They would be justice. It's time to clean up the Supreme Court, and the best place to start is impeaching Clarence Thomas.

A renaissance man, Keith Raffel has served as the senior counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, started a successful internet software company and written five novels, which you can check out at keithraffel.com. He currently spends the academic year as a resident scholar at Harvard. To find out more about Keith and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at creators.com.

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