Clarence Thomas put on the spot as court prepares to hear Trump ballot ban case

A newly established code of conduct put in place by the Supreme Court may come back to haunt Justice Clarence Thomas as the court prepares to hear testimony on whether Donald Trump can be banned from the ballot in 2024.

With the Colorado ballot case known as Anderson v. Griswold to be heard later in the year, Democratic lawmakers are putting Justice Thomas on the spot to recuse himself due to his wife's links to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the heart of the case.

As MSNBC's Hayes Brown explained, there are grave concerns about Thomas' impartiality — moreso than usual — with Democrats focusing on Ginni Thomas in their letter demanding he stay out of the case.

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According to the letter delivered to the jurist from the Democrats, "A Justice should disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the Justice’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, that is, where an unbiased and reasonable person who is aware of all relevant circumstances would doubt that the Justice could fairly discharge his or her duties," later continuing, "The Justice knows that the Justice…or the Justice’s spouse… has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding, or any other interest that could be affected substantially by the outcome of the proceeding.”

The letter added, “The Justice or Justice’s spouse…is known by the Justice:…(iii) to have an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.”

According to Brown, the letter may just be a case of Democrats "Shouting into the wind," but, at the same time, it puts the court, and Thomas, under increased scrutiny as it prepares to make a historic ruling on the seldom applied 14th Amendment.