Hi All,

A few points:

1) Everyone is welcome to sign this petition; alumni/ae of the College of the Holy Cross are PARTICULARLY encouraged to sign, and to indicate their class year in the comments.

2) Let's stay focused on the point of THIS petition, which is intended to be strictly non-partisan: Justice Thomas demonstrably failed to uphold the standard of avoiding a conflict of interest, as seen by a reasonable person, when he did not recuse himself from a SCOTUS decision which directly involved the political activism of his spouse. She is entitled under the 1st Amendment to that activism, as are we all, but he is also obligated, as a member of the nation's highest legal authority, to maintain the people's trust in the overall impartiality of the Supreme Court. He demonstrably failed to do so. That is the ONLY reason for this petition. Full stop.

3) This is an opportunity--and perhaps a responsibility--for the College of the Holy Cross to rescind the honorary degree conferred upon Justice Thomas in 2012 in light of THIS failure to avoid the reasonable appearance of a conflict of interest, to assert its values and its expectations of professional conduct among its current students, alums, and anyone it has chosen to honor. This petition should be particularly important to any and all HC alums in the legal and/or judicial fields, and to all pre-law, pre-public service HC students, as it speaks to the overall ethical integrity of the institution that will grant or has granted their degrees.

4) This is truly a non-partisan issue. I understand it is asking a great deal for a college at the level of the College of the Holy Cross to even CONSIDER such a move, and also fully believe that the specific circumstances here warrant such a request and such action. We have, here, a SCOTUS justice who did NOT recuse themselves from a case which DIRECTLY involved whether or not communications between their spouse (who is entitled to be politically active, within the limits of the law) and the White House Chief of Staff about efforts to overturn or stall the legal, free, and fair election of the President of the United States, should or should not be made available to a Congressional committee.

Justice Thomas was the LONE dissenting vote in that ruling. 

That is the crux of this petition. He should have recused himself. Full stop. He did not. As a result, Holy Cross should and must rescind its honorary degree, to signal its fundamental, unshakeable, non-partisan belief in the impartiality of all federal judges, and, especially, of those on the Supreme Court.

That is THE issue of this petition. Thanks.