The justices, who have hinted at internal deliberations over an ethics code, last met on Nov. 9 in their private conference room at the court.
The U.S. Supreme Court has released its first-ever code of conduct as it faces greater scrutiny from Senate Democrats and calls for ethics reform.
Released on Nov. 13, the code touches on a long list of areas related to judicial ethics, including guidelines for recusal and disqualification in proceedings. Criteria surrounding financial, fiduciary, and other external activities were provided as well.
Senate Democrats have called for Justices Samuel Alito’s and Clarence Thomas’s recusal from recent cases. Associates of both justices have been the subject of potential subpoenas by the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
Each of the nine justices signed onto the code, which drew on the already existing Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges. The Court said that it already followed existing rules derived from historic practice and other sources, but that “the absence of a Code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.”
“To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct,” they added.
The justices, who have hinted at internal deliberations over an ethics code, last met on Nov. 9 in their private conference room at the Court.
The push for an ethics code was jump-started by a series of stories by the investigative news site ProPublica detailing the relationship between conservative donor Harlan Crow and Justice Thomas. ProPublica also reported on Justice Alito’s Alaskan fishing trip with a Republican donor. The Associated Press reported that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, aided by her staff, has advanced sales of her books through college visits over the past decade.
Among other things, the code states: “A Justice should comply with the restrictions on acceptance of gifts and the prohibition on solicitation of gifts set forth in the Judicial Conference Regulations on Gifts now in effect. A Justice should endeavor to prevent any member of the Justice’s family residing in the household from soliciting or accepting a gift except to the extent that a Justice would be permitted to do so by the Judicial Conference Gift Regulations. A ‘member of the Justice’s family’ means any relative of a Justice by blood, adoption, or marriage, or any person treated by a Justice as a member of the Justice’s family.”
The code prompted criticism from some who argued that it lacks a sufficient enforcement mechanism.
By Sam Dorman
