Justice Kagan elaborates on potential Supreme Court ethics code enforcement; NBC News, September 9, 2024

Lawrence Hurley, NBC News;  Justice Kagan elaborates on potential Supreme Court ethics code enforcement

"Justice Elena Kagan on Monday outlined how the Supreme Court's new ethics code could be improved if it had an enforcement mechanism, rejecting claims that the idea she has proposed would be ineffective.

The court, under pressure over claims of ethics violations mostly aimed at conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, issued a new code last year but it was immediately criticized for lacking any way of enforcing it.

Kagan, a member of the court's liberal minority, has called for creating a panel of lower court judges appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts to handle allegations made against the justices."

Elena Kagan Endorses High Court Ethics Enforcement Mechanism; Bloomberg Law, July 25, 2024

Suzanne Monyak, Lydia Wheeler , Bloomberg Law; Elena Kagan Endorses High Court Ethics Enforcement Mechanism

"Justice Elena Kagan proposed Chief Justice John Roberts appoint a panel of judges to enforce the US Supreme Court’s code of conduct.

While speaking Thursday at a judicial conference in Sacramento, California, Kagan said she trusts Roberts and if he creates “some sort of committee of highly respected judges with a great deal of experience and a reputation for fairness,” that seems like a good solution...

Kagan, in response to a moderator’s question at the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s annual judicial conference, acknowledged there are difficulties in deciding who should enforce an ethics code for the justices.

“But I feel as though we, however hard it is, that we could and should try to figure out some mechanism for doing this,” she said."

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.”"

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.""

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

 Maxine Bernstein, 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.”"