Senate panel to consider Supreme Court ethics package

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced Monday that it will markup a Supreme Court ethics bill next week as justices ended their term without adopting any changes to how they should report gifts. 

Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said that the panel will consider legislation by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who chairs the judiciary subcommittee on courts. The proposal would force the court to adopt a code of conduct for itself and impose the same gift, travel and income disclosure standards for justices that members of Congress abide by. 

In addition, the bill requires the Supreme Court to publish its ethics rules and procedures on its website. It would also create a new board of circuit court judges that would examine complaints lodged against sitting justices. 

The Democratic-led effort is part of an ongoing response to a slew of stories detailing lavish vacations and gifts that GOP megadonor Harlan Crow has given Justice Clarence Thomas over the years. A separate report recently detailed an Alaska fishing trip that Justice Samuel Alito accepted from Paul Singer, a longtime GOP donor, who eventually had business before the court. 

“The belief that they should not be held accountable or even disclose lavish gifts from wealthy benefactors is an affront to the nation they were chosen to serve. To hold these nine Justices to the same standard as every other federal judge is not a radical or partisan notion,” Durbin and Whitehouse said in a statement. 

“To the Supreme Court, we say: we wish you sunny days on your vacation, but your refusal to meet the most basic ethical standards casts a shadow you cannot escape,” they continued. “Since the Court won’t act, Congress will.”

The committee held a hearing in May centered on Supreme Court ethics, which Durbin invited Chief Justice John Roberts to appear at. Roberts declined, telling the No. 2 Senate Democrat that testimony by a sitting chief justice before the panel is “exceedingly rare.” 

Durbin last week laid into the court for not taking up any ethics changes on its own before breaking for its annual summer break, saying that “many questions remain at the end of the court’s latest term regarding its reputation, credibility, and ‘honorable’ status.” 

“I’m sorry to see Chief Justice Roberts end the term without taking action on the ethical issues plaguing the Court—all while the Court handed down decisions that dismantled longstanding precedents and the progress our country has made over generations,” Durbin said, referring to recent rulings on President Biden’s plan to forgive billions of dollars in student debt and affirmative action.