Showing posts with label Ethics Codes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ethics Codes. Show all posts

Monday, January 1, 2024

Roberts sidesteps Supreme Court’s ethics controversies in yearly report; The Washington Post, December 31, 2023

 , The Washington Post; Roberts sidesteps Supreme Court’s ethics controversies in yearly report

"Roberts, a history buff, also expounded on the potential for artificial intelligence to both enhance and detract from the work of judges, lawyers and litigants. For those who cannot afford a lawyer, he noted, AI could increase access to justice.

“AI obviously has great potential to dramatically increase access to key information for lawyers and non-lawyers alike. But just as it risks invading privacy interests and dehumanizing the law,” Roberts wrote, “machines cannot fully replace key actors in court.”...

Roberts also did not mention in his 13-page report the court’s adoption for the first time of a formal code of conduct, announced in November, specific to the nine justices and intended to promote “integrity and impartiality.” For years, the justices said they voluntarily complied with the same ethical guidelines that apply to other federal judges and resisted efforts by Congress to impose a policy on the high court...

The policy was praised by some as a positive initial step, but criticized by legal ethics experts for giving the justices too much discretion over recusal decisions and for not including a process for holding the justices accountable if they violate their own rules."

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

The Supreme Court’s Self-Excusing Ethics Code; The New Yorker, November 21, 2023

 , The New Yorker; The Supreme Court’s Self-Excusing Ethics Code

"Last week, the Supreme Court issued a first-ever code of conduct for Justices. It is not a set of rules designed to redress past ethical breaches and prevent future ones but rather a defense brief arguing that there have been no ethical breaches to redress and prevent."

Monday, November 13, 2023

STATEMENT OF THE COURT: REGARDING THE CODE OF CONDUCT; SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, November 13, 2023

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES; STATEMENT OF THE COURT REGARDING THE CODE OF CONDUCT

"The undersigned Justices are promulgating this Code of Conduct to set out succinctly and gather in one place the ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the Members of the Court. For the most part these rules and principles are not new: The Court has long had the equivalent of common law ethics rules, that is, a body of rules derived from a variety of sources, including statutory provisions, the code that applies to other members of the federal judiciary, ethics advisory opinions issued by the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct, and historic practice. 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."

Wednesday, November 1, 2023

Why the Supreme Court’s wasted time on ethics may cost it; CNN, November 1, 2023

Why the Supreme Court’s wasted time on ethics may cost it

"Supreme Court justices, who have infinite power over American lives, have continually resisted calls for greater accountability in a formal code of conduct.

Some justices recently signaled that they might be ready to adopt a binding ethics code. But their record of inaction reflects the difficulty of compromise among the nine and suggests any real change may not come at their own hand.

The delay has had consequences.

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats plan to authorize subpoenas for three wealthy conservatives, including real estate magnate Harlan Crow, who has provided luxury travel and other gifts to Justice Clarence Thomas."

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Justice Barrett Calls for Supreme Court to Adopt an Ethics Code; The New York Times, October 16, 2023

Abbie VanSickle, The New York Times; Justice Barrett Calls for Supreme Court to Adopt an Ethics Code

"Justice Amy Coney Barrett said on Monday that she favored an ethics code for the Supreme Court, joining the growing chorus of justices who have publicly backed adopting such rules.

“It would be a good idea for us to do it, particularly so that we can communicate to the public exactly what it is that we are doing in a clearer way,” she said during a wide-ranging conversation at the University of Minnesota Law School with Robert Stein, a longtime law professor and the former chief operating officer of the American Bar Association."

Saturday, September 23, 2023

Justice Kagan Calls for the Supreme Court to Adopt an Ethics Code; The New York Times, September 22, 2023

Adam Liptak, The New York Times;  Justice Kagan Calls for the Supreme Court to Adopt an Ethics Code

"Justice Elena Kagan said on Friday that the Supreme Court should adopt a code of ethics, saying that “it would be a good thing for the court to do that.”

Her comment, part of a wide-ranging live-streamed public interview at Notre Dame Law School, came on the day ProPublica reported that Justice Clarence Thomas had twice attended an annual event for donors organized by the conservative political network established by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

Justice Kagan did not discuss the report, but she said that an ethics code “would, I think, go far in persuading other people that we were adhering to the highest standards of conduct.” She added that “I hope we can make progress.”"

Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events; ProPublica, September 22, 2023

 Joshua KaplanJustin Elliott  Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica ; Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events

"The code of conduct for the federal judiciary lays out rules designed to preserve judges’ impartiality and independence, which it calls “indispensable to justice in our society.” The code specifically prohibits both political activity and participation in fundraising. Judges are advised, for instance, not to “associate themselves” with any group “publicly identified with controversial legal, social, or political positions.”

But the code of conduct only applies to the lower courts. At the Supreme Court, justices decide what’s appropriate for themselves.

“I can’t imagine — it takes my breath away, frankly — that he would go to a Koch network event for donors,” said John E. Jones III, a retired federal judge appointed by President George W. Bush. Jones said that if he had gone to a Koch summit as a district court judge, “I’d have gotten a letter that would’ve commenced a disciplinary proceeding.”

“What you’re seeing is a slow creep toward unethical behavior. Do it if you can get away with it,” Jones said."

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Justice Kavanaugh says ethics changes may be coming to Supreme Court; The Washington Post, September 7, 2023

, The Washington Post ; Justice Kavanaugh says ethics changes may be coming to Supreme Court

"Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said Thursday that he is “hopeful” the Supreme Court soon will take specific steps to deal with ethics issues at the court and boost public confidence in the institution.

Kavanaugh made the comments while speaking at a conference of judges and lawyers, after he was asked by Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit about “perceived ethics issues” at the high court."

Monday, September 4, 2023

As Clarence Thomas faces record unpopularity, Americans want an ethics code for the Supreme Court; CNN, September 3, 2023

 , CNN; As Clarence Thomas faces record unpopularity, Americans want an ethics code for the Supreme Court

"But there is no significant partisan gap when it comes to whether there should be a formal ethics code for the high court justices.

A UMass Amherst poll conducted a few months ago (after Thomas’ trips financed by Crow first came to light) asked whether the Supreme Court should have a formal code of ethics like other federal courts.

About 90% of Americans said it should. Only about 10% said it should not...

In fact, north of 80% of every subgroup polled in the UMass survey said that the Supreme Court should have a formal ethics code. This includes 96% of Democrats and 84% of Republicans."

Saturday, August 26, 2023

Two Justices Clash on Congress’s Power Over Supreme Court Ethics; The New York Times, August 26, 2023

Adam Liptak , The New York Times; Two Justices Clash on Congress’s Power Over Supreme Court Ethics

"Congress has enacted laws that apply to the justices, including ones on financial disclosures and recusal. In a way, the most telling ethics legislation came from the first Congress, in 1789, requiring all federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, to take an oath promising “that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me.""

Friday, August 4, 2023

Justice Elena Kagan pushes for US Supreme Court to adopt own ethics code; The Oregonian, August 3, 2023

 , The Oregonian; Justice Elena Kagan pushes for US Supreme Court to adopt own ethics code

"U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Thursday said she hopes the nation’s high court will adopt its own code of ethics and that the nine justices are in discussions about doing so with a wide variety of opinions.

Unlike Justice Samuel Alito, who said last week that Congress lacks the power to impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court, Kagan countered that it does.

Yet she said she believes Congress has its limits...

Kagan said she’s hopeful the Supreme Court will adopt its own code of conduct and take the question about what Congress can or cannot do “out of play.”

“It’s not a secret for me to say we have been discussing this issue,” she said. “The nine of us have a variety of views about that.”"

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor’s staff prodded colleges and libraries to buy her books; AP, July 11, 2023

BRIAN SLODYSKO AND ERIC TUCKER, AP; Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor’s staff prodded colleges and libraries to buy her books

"Sotomayor’s staff has often prodded public institutions that have hosted the justice to buy her memoir or children’s books, works that have earned her at least $3.7 million since she joined the court in 2009. Details of those events, largely out of public view, were obtained by The Associated Press through more than 100 open records requests to public institutions. The resulting tens of thousands of pages of documents offer a rare look at Sotomayor and her fellow justices beyond their official duties.

In her case, the documents reveal repeated examples of taxpayer-funded court staff performing tasks for the justice’s book ventures, which workers in other branches of government are barred from doing. But when it comes to promoting her literary career, Sotomayor is free to do what other government officials cannot because the Supreme Court does not have a formal code of conduct, leaving the nine justices to largely write and enforce their own rules.

“This is one of the most basic tenets of ethics laws that protects taxpayer dollars from misuse,” said Kedric Payne, a former deputy chief counsel at the Office of Congressional Ethics and current general counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan government watchdog group in Washington. “The problem at the Supreme Court is there’s no one there to say whether this is wrong.”"

Friday, July 7, 2023

How the recent SCOTUS session renewed questions about the Court's legitimacy; Fresh Air, NPR, July 6, 2023

Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPRHow the recent SCOTUS session renewed questions about the Court's legitimacy

"NY Times legal reporter Adam Liptak says the Court's liberal members have accused the conservative supermajority of engaging in politics and not applying established law to the questions before them...

GROSS: Why is there no code of ethics for the Supreme Court justices when there are codes of ethics for judges?

LIPTAK: There are federal statutes that apply to the justices on disclosure and recusal. So it's not as though they're completely unbounded. But the general code of ethics that applies to all federal judges does not apply to the justices. Moreover, the justices make their own decisions about whether to recuse or not, not subject to second-guessing from anyone else. And that is, you know, at odds with the old adage that no one should be a judge in his or her own case. The largest problem - well, there are many problems. A large problem is that it is a little hard to figure out what the enforcement mechanism ought to be.

If it's the Supreme Court, it's hard to know how you're going to put another body above the Supreme Court and decide when the justices have violated ethics provisions. And it's also probably problematic to let the other justices decide, for instance, who should recuse because that could give rise to strategic behavior to try to get people off a case for reasons unrelated to ethics and related to the outcome of the case. So the whole thing is a tangle, and what you would hope for is that the justices would feel shame and just try to act responsibly.

GROSS: They're the highest court in the land. Like, they are the Supreme Court. And if they don't abide by ethics, then what does it say about the ethics of the decisions and of the court itself? I mean, they're supposed to be monitoring everybody else's ethics.

LIPTAK: The Supreme Court should be a role model. The Supreme Court should be above reproach. The Supreme Court should be the last place we should look for ethics scandals, and yet they seem to arise almost weekly.

GROSS: You know, at the same time, some members of the court might be ethically challenged. Many legal experts think the court is expanding its own power. So if that's true, if there are people on the court who are ethically challenged and, at the same time, the court is expanding its power, that seems like a very questionable combination.

LIPTAK: Yeah, that's not a great combination. And maybe the two things move together because if you have the self-confidence to think you can decide your own ethics principles, you probably also have the self-confidence to think you can decide every other question imaginable."

Monday, June 12, 2023

If the Supreme Court Won’t Fix Its Ethics Mess, Congress Should; The New York Times, June 12, 2023

 Erwin Chemerinsky, The New York Times; If the Supreme Court Won’t Fix Its Ethics Mess, Congress Should

"Congress should not wait on the court any longer. It has the authority to hold justices to a code of conduct. If it fails to do so, it will share responsibility for the ethics mess at the Supreme Court...

The case for the Code of Conduct for federal judges is made succinctly in its first sentence: “An independent and honorable judiciary is indispensable to justice in our society.” That should apply equally to the nation’s highest court."

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Why Supreme Court ‘ethics’ legislation would do more harm than good; The Washington Post, April 28, 2023

, The Washington Post ; Why Supreme Court ‘ethics’ legislation would do more harm than good

"Lower courts have a formal process for fielding complaints of judicial misconduct, because lower-court judges can be censured or temporarily suspended from cases by panels of fellow judges. The Supreme Court is different — it does not, by definition, answer to other courts, so any code of conduct would be unenforceable within the judicial branch. Accountability at the highest levels of the executive and judicial branches must come from the political process: impeachment. By installing a permanent investigative bureaucracy to scrutinize the Supreme Court, the Senate legislation would warp constitutional lines of authority."

Friday, February 10, 2023

American Bar Association Urges Ethics Code for US Supreme Court; Bloomberg Law, February 7, 2023

Lydia Wheeler, Bloomberg Law; American Bar Association Urges Ethics Code for US Supreme Court

"The American Bar Association wants the US Supreme Court to adopt a judicial ethics code.

Meeting in New Orleans on Monday, the group’s 591-member policy-making body passed a resolution urging the high court to adopt ethics rules similar to the code of conduct all other federal judges must follow.

Concern over public perception of the court seemed to prompt the ABA action. The resolution said the absence of a clearly articulated, binding code of ethics for the justices threatens the legitimacy of the court.

“If the legitimacy of the Court is diminished, the legitimacy of all our courts and our entire judicial system is imperiled,” the resolution said.

Federal judges on lower courts across the country are bound by the Code of Judicial Conduct, which maps out rules for how judges should conduct themselves on and off the bench. The code says judges should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities, refrain from political activity, and recuse themselves from a case when their impartiality might be reasonably questioned because of financial interests or personal bias."

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

NYT report leads to calls for ethics code for Supreme Court justices; WBUR, November 22, 2022

WBUR ; NYT report leads to calls for ethics code for Supreme Court justices

"The New York Times reported over the weekend that a whistleblower says in 2014, an activist at a dinner with Justice Samuel Alito and his wife was told about a Supreme Court decision before it was released. That report is prompting calls for Justices to follow an ethics code, like lower court judges.

Here & Now's Robin Young speaks with Amanda Frost, law professor at the University of Virginia.

This segment aired on November 22, 2022."

Opinion The Supreme Court has lost its ethical compass. Can it find one fast?; The Washington Post, November 22, 2022

  , The Washington Post; OpinionThe Supreme Court has lost its ethical compass. Can it find one fast?

"The Supreme Court must get its ethics act together, and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. needs to take the lead...

Three years ago, Justice Elena Kagan testified before the House that the justices were “studying the question of whether to have a code of judicial conduct that’s applicable only to the United States Supreme Court,” calling it, “something that’s being thought very seriously about.” That’s the last we’ve heard from the court on this topic.

Roberts has had a rough 2022. Tackling his court’s ethics problem would be a smart way to finish a bad year on a good note."

Sunday, November 20, 2022

Allegation of Supreme Court Breach Prompts Renewed Calls for Ethics Code; The New York Times, November 20, 2022

 , The New York Times ; Allegation of Supreme Court Breach Prompts Renewed Calls for Ethics Code

"Lawmakers are demanding further investigation at the Supreme Court and renewing their calls for binding ethics rules for the justices, after allegations that a landmark 2014 contraception decision was prematurely disclosed through a secretive influence campaign by anti-abortion activists."