Ginni and Clarence Thomas draw questions about Supreme Court ethics; ABC News, February 8, 2022

Devin Dwyer andGabriella Abdul-Hakim, ABC News; 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."

Legal Scholars Push For Supreme Court Ethics Code As Gorsuch And Thomas Come Under Fire; Forbes, February 4, 2022

 Alison Durkee, Forbes; Legal Scholars Push For Supreme Court Ethics Code As Gorsuch And Thomas Come Under Fire

"More than two dozen legal ethics scholars asked Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Thursday to impose a code of conduct for the court’s judges, as the conservative-leaning court faces declining public trust and Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas spark new ethics concerns...

A code of conduct would help the Supreme Court “transparently address potential conflicts and other issues in a way that builds public trust in the institution,” the 25 scholars wrote in their letter to Roberts, which was released through activist group Fix the Court.

The scholars said their request wasn’t in response to any particular concern, and they “do not question the integrity of any justice,” but it comes amid concern about ethical conflicts.

Gorsuch will speak Friday evening at a conference in Walt Disney World for the conservative Federalist Society, drawing criticism because of the event’s overt political nature—other speakers include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Vice President Mike Pence and Trump White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany—and because it’s closed to the press."

How to avoid 10 common ethics pitfalls; ABA Journal, June 1, 2020

DAVID L. HUDSON JR., ABA Journal; How to avoid 10 common ethics pitfalls

"Lawyers are stewards of their clients’ most sensitive and personal information. They serve as officers of the court and are in positions of public trust. But these high standards can lead to steep falls, and a lawyer who doesn’t carefully mind ethics obligations can quickly run afoul of the rules of professional responsi-bility. 

Most states require ethics training as part of continuing legal education requirements. But a quick scan of disciplinary records reveals lawyers behaving badly on a spectrum of issues—from improper advertising to mishandling private information and everything in between.

Whether intentionally flouting ethics rules or unwittingly succumbing to the many pitfalls that can appear, lawyers regularly face discipline for crossing the line. Being hauled in front of a disciplinary board can cause professional embarrassment, suspension of a law license and even disbarment. 

We asked legal ethics experts for a primer on the most pressing and pernicious ethics traps out there for the modern lawyer, along with best practices to avoid problems on the front end.

The lesson is to not only beware, but be aware."

Serious questions remain about the ethics code for new appellate court; The Exponent Telegram, January 16, 2022

David McMahon, The Exponent Telegram; Serious questions remain about the ethics code for new appellate court

"West Virginia’s newest court is set to open its doors this year, but important questions are still to be determined about an ethics code for its judges.

Proposed by legislators in early 2021 and signed into law by Governor Jim Justice soon after, the West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals is speeding towards its July start date.

Key among the rules by which it will operate are requirements for situations in which justices must decide whether to remove themselves from a case because of the potential for bias or a personal connection to a litigant or the case."

In a year-end report, Chief Justice John Roberts emphasizes judicial ethics; NPR, December 31, 2021

ERIC MCDANIEL , NPR; In a year-end report, Chief Justice John Roberts emphasizes judicial ethics

"U.S. courts need to do more to ensure compliance with ethics rules — including rules that preclude a judge from presiding over cases in which he or she has a financial interest, Chief Justice John Roberts says in a year-end report on the federal judiciary.

Roberts was responding, in part, to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal which found that between 2010 and 2018, 131 federal judges ruled in cases involving companies in which they or their families owned shares of stock. 

Roberts said that while those amount to "less than three hundredths of one percent of the 2.5 million civil cases filed in the district courts" during that period, the federal judiciary must take the matter seriously.

"We are duty-bound to strive for 100% compliance because public trust is essential, not incidental, to our function," he wrote."

AI researchers propose ‘bias bounties’ to put ethics principles into practice; VentureBeat, April 17, 2020

Khari Johnson, VentureBeat; AI researchers propose ‘bias bounties’ to put ethics principles into practice

"Researchers from Google Brain, Intel, OpenAI, and top research labs in the U.S. and Europe joined forces this week to release what the group calls a toolbox for turning AI ethics principles into practice. The kit for organizations creating AI models includes the idea of paying developers for finding bias in AI, akin to the bug bounties offered in security software.

This recommendation and other ideas for ensuring AI is made with public trust and societal well-being in mind were detailed in a preprint paper published this week. The bug bounty hunting community might be too small to create strong assurances, but developers could still unearth more bias than is revealed by measures in place today, the authors say."

It wasn’t just the National Archives. The Library of Congress also balked at a Women’s March photo.; The Washington Post, January 31, 2020

Joe Heim , The Washington Post; It wasn’t just the National Archives. The Library of Congress also balked at a Women’s March photo.

 

"The Library of Congress abandoned plans last year to showcase a mural-size photograph of demonstrators at the 2017 Women’s March in Washington because of concerns it would be perceived as critical of President Trump, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post...

 

Slayton said the decision to remove the photograph was made by leadership of the library’s Center for Exhibits and Interpretation. “No outside entities reviewed this exhibition’s content before it opened or opined on its content,” the spokeswoman wrote.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden was informed of the decision soon after and supported it, Slayton said. Hayden, who is in the fourth year of her 10-year term, was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2016 and confirmed by the Senate."

 

Pruitt is gone. Congress still doesn’t care about ethics.; The Washington Post, July 6, 2018

Walter M. Shaub Jr., The Washington Post; Pruitt is gone. Congress still doesn’t care about ethics.

"The damage to the executive branch ethics program is profound. A bad ethical tone from the top, which began with Trump’s refusal to divest his conflicting financial interests, continues to erode that program. Trump’s commendation of the departing Pruitt is as strong a statement as a leader can send to devalue the importance of ethics in government.

The foundational principle that public service is a public trust is now on the ropes. Those in Congress who share responsibility for Pruitt’s ethical failures will find it difficult to avoid looking hypocritical if they demand ethical conduct from appointees in this administration or the next. Gowdy is a notable exception, but he is leaving Congress. It is time for his colleagues to step up their oversight of this administration’s ethical failings. The road to redemption may require an acknowledgment of responsibility for failing to oversee the EPA’s administrator and a recommitment to enforcing government ethics. As for the executive branch, Trump can start by curtailing his praise of the current holder of the title “most unethical Cabinet member in modern history.”"

Government Ethics Officials Raise Red Flags On EPA Chief Scott Pruitt; NPR, April 10, 2018

Domenico Montanaro, NPR; Government Ethics Officials Raise Red Flags On EPA Chief Scott Pruitt

"The Office of Government Ethics on Monday issued a strongly worded letter (full letter at the bottom of this post) that lays out its case for why ethics matter.

"Public trust demands that all employees act in the public's interest, and free from any actual or perceived conflicts when fulfilling governmental responsibilities entrusted to them," writes David Apol, acting director and general counsel of the office.

What's more, Apol points out, Pruitt is not just any "employee" who has to be held to this standard.

"Agency heads in particular bear a heightened responsibility," he notes. That's because, according to the Code of Federal Regulations, agency heads are literally "required to 'exercise personal leadership in ... establishing and maintaining an effective agency ethics program and fostering an ethical culture in the agency.'"

Not only that, but the statute lays out the expectation that agency heads "enforce" ethics rules in their agencies and consider them in "evaluating the performance of senior executives.""

Cambridge Analytica controversy must spur researchers to update data ethics; Nature, March 27, 2018

Editorial, Nature; Cambridge Analytica controversy must spur researchers to update data ethics

"Ethics training on research should be extended to computer scientists who have not conventionally worked with human study participants.

Academics across many fields know well how technology can outpace its regulation. All researchers have a duty to consider the ethics of their work beyond the strict limits of law or today’s regulations. If they don’t, they will face serious and continued loss of public trust."

Ben Carson Defends Buying $31,000 Dining Set to Congress: ‘I Left It to My Wife’; New York Times, March 20, 2018

Glenn Thrush, New York Times; Ben Carson Defends Buying $31,000 Dining Set to Congress: ‘I Left It to My Wife’

[Kip Currier: HUD Secretary Ben Carson's statement in the excerpt below is the money quote take-away from this article.

Ethics is not only about the substantive impacts of actions but also about how those actions look to other people: The messages--both spoken and unspoken--that  our actions communicate about our own values.

A phrase often heard regarding ethical issues is "air of impropriety", meaning that an action has a sense of not seeming "right", of not being "above board", of not looking good. Even if an action may technically be legal or ethical.

Good ethical decision-making includes consideration of our own internal compasses and the external signals that our actions send to other people. Not just in the current buzzphrase sense of "the optics" of something, but what we are communicating about our priorities and values.

Ethical leadership--especially public service--is concerned with promoting trust in the integrity of our leaders, our institutions, our democratic values and ideals. Being mindful about how something looks--the example we set for others--is an integral component of ethical leadership. That's worth thinking about.]

"On Tuesday, Mr. Carson defended that decision, saying that his son had not profited from his father’s government post.

“HUD’s ethics counsel suggested it might look funny, but I’m not a person who spends a lot of time thinking about how something looks,” Mr. Carson said."

Why Don’t Supreme Court Justices Have an Ethics Code?; NBC News, April 11, 2017

Rich Gardella, NBC News; 

Why Don’t Supreme Court Justices Have an Ethics Code?

""When we do a Supreme Court justice, we want to know about their background in the law and everything that they know," said U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter of New York, an 87-year-old Democrat. "Nobody ever asks them, 'Are you an honest person?'"

Slaughter has been waging a long battle to pass a bill that she says would make the justices more transparent about and accountable for conduct outside the Court.

"The one thing that we take for granted, and give them the benefit of the doubt," said Slaughter, "is that they're not going to do anything that they would not have done as a federal judge."

Slaughter has been sponsoring legislation since 2013 that would require the nation's highest Court to create and follow a code of ethics.

Her bill is called "The Supreme Court Ethics Act." Last Wednesday, she reintroduced it for the third time.

All other federal judges are subject to a published official "Code of Conduct for United States Judges," which applies to all employees of the Judicial Branch's Administrative Office of the United States Courts. The code includes specific rules about ethics, integrity and even appearances of impropriety relating to outside business and political activities and the acceptance of gifts."

Wells Fargo Case Prompts Questions Of Corporate Ethics Reform; NPR, 9/24/16

[Podcast] NPR; Wells Fargo Case Prompts Questions Of Corporate Ethics Reform:

"The bank's CEO appeared before a Senate banking committee this week to answer questions about fake accounts created by more than 5,000 of his employees. Scott Simon talks with consultant Dov Seidman."

Hardly Anyone Trusts The Media Anymore; Huffington Post, 4/18/16

Nick Visser, Huffington Post; Hardly Anyone Trusts The Media Anymore:

"Only 6 percent of people say they have a great deal of confidence in the press, about the same level of trust Americans have in Congress, according to a new survey released on Sunday.

The study mirrors past reports that found the public’s trust in mass media has reached historic lows, according to data gathered by the Media Insight Project, a partnership between The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute. The report found faith in the press was just slightly higher than the 4 percent of people who said they trusted Congress.

Alongside the dire findings, the report found respondents valued accuracy above all else, with 85 percent of people saying it was extremely important to avoid errors in coverage. Timeliness and clarity followed closely, with 76 percent and 72 percent respectively saying those attributes were imperative among media sources."

My Shared Shame: The Media Helped Make Trump; New York Times, 3/26/16

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times; My Shared Shame: The Media Helped Make Trump:

"All politicians spin, of course. But all in all, I’ve never met a national politician in the U.S. who is so ill informed, evasive, puerile and deceptive as Trump.

When the fact-check website PolitiFact was ready to choose its “lie of the year” for 2015, it found that the only real contenders were falsehoods by Trump. So it lumped them together and awarded the title to “the many campaign misstatements of Donald Trump.”

That pattern of prevarication is what we in the media, especially television, didn’t adequately highlight, leaving many voters with the perception that Trump is actually a straight shooter."

London clinic leaks HIV status of patients; BBC News, 9/2/15

BBC News; London clinic leaks HIV status of patients:

"The 56 Dean Street clinic in Soho sent out the names and email addresses of 780 people when a newsletter was issued to clinic patients.

Patients were supposed to be blind-copied into the email but instead details were sent as a group email.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the breach was "completely unacceptable".

Speaking at a conference in Manchester, Mr Hunt said patients needed to feel confident the NHS would look after their personal data.

He said: "The truth is that we will throw this all away if we lose the public's trust in our ability to look after their personal data securely.

"If we are going to win that trust we need to strengthen the independent oversight of data security within the NHS to a level that we don't have at the moment.""

[Editorial] A Wisconsin Judge’s Refusal to Recuse; New York Times, 1/24/12

[Editorial] New York Times; A Wisconsin Judge’s Refusal to Recuse:

"Justice Michael Gableman of the Wisconsin Supreme Court announced last week that he will not retroactively recuse himself by taking back his vote in one of the court’s highly divisive recent cases. The decision is indefensible...

To regain the public’s trust, the court must disqualify him if he does not face up to his impropriety and recuse himself."