; Ginni and Clarence Thomas draw questions about Supreme Court ethics
"There are no explicit ethics guidelines that govern the activities of a justice's spouse, experts say, but there are rules about justices avoiding conflicts of interest. Federal law requires federal judges to recuse from cases whenever their "impartiality might reasonably be questioned."
Roth notes, however, that there is no independent enforcement mechanism in place; it's entirely up to the individual justice...
Members of Congress and outside experts say new enforceable ethics rules for the court are needed now more than ever. Even Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged in his 2021 year-end report that "public trust is essential, not incidental" to the court's function.
But Roberts opposes outside efforts to impose a new ethics code."
