Hutchinson: Roberts should state ‘clear set of rules’ for Supreme Court instead of Congress taking action

Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Sunday said Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts should state a “clear set of rules” for the nation’s highest court as it deals with ethics scrutiny — rather than Congress taking action on the issue. 

“I think there needs to be a clear set of rules and there needs to be openness about it, so that everybody knows what the rules are. Those are important. Every public official has to follow those. They can set those. They should set those, versus the Congress of the United States, because they are a separate branch of government,” Hutchinson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

A series of recent reports from ProPublica found that Republican megadonor Harlan Crow paid for Thomas to join in on luxury vacations, made a real estate deal with Thomas and paid money to a private boarding school for Thomas’s great-nephew. 

The reports have stoked a surge of scrutiny about disclosures and ethics standards on the Supreme Court.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing last week on ethics reforms for the court, for which Roberts declined an invitation to speak.

“The court needs to be transparent, first of all. They need to be clear on what their reporting rules are. They need to review those to make sure they’re very similar to the other public officials and branches of government, which is – has broad reporting requirements,” Hutchinson said on Sunday. 

“Clearly they have not been sufficient,” he added. “They’ve changed those, but I think they need to step up just simply in terms of their transparency, so the American people understand what the rules are and what is required and is similar to other public officials.”