Sheldon Whitehouse, Bloomberg Law; This Obscure Judicial Agency Could Tighten Ethics for Justices
"As the justices drag their feet on making changes, a little-known agency within the judicial branch of government could have an outsize role in ethical reform. The Judicial Conference of the United States administers laws that Congress has passed regarding judicial ethics. In administering those laws, the Judicial Conference has statutory power to set up rules and procedures that govern both judges and Supreme Court justices.
By statute, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court chairs this body, which comprises chief judges from the circuit courts of appeals and judges from district courts within each circuit.
The Judicial Conference, established by Congress in 1922, meets twice a year to consider policy issues affecting the judiciary, including ethical issues. For example, the Judicial Conference amended the Judicial Code of Conduct in 2019 following allegations from judicial clerks that the federal judiciary needed to do more to protect against workplace harassment.
Contrary to what Supreme Court justices suggested in their recent “Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices,” this power is crystal-clear, and the Supreme Court has long abided by it.
The chief justice’s recent public statement that more needs to be done on Supreme Court ethics signals an important opening for the Judicial Conference, the judiciary’s rule-setter in many of these areas."
