Watchdog Group Calls For Supreme Court Ethics Code Amid Conflict Of Interest Fears

A nonpartisan watchdog group is calling for a code of ethics for Supreme Court justices amid concerns about conflicts of interest.

Surprisingly, Supreme Court justices have no official code of conduct with clear ethical obligations, unlike other judges in America. And their ethical choices cant be countermanded by a higher court because there is none.

Creating a code of conduct was one of a number of recommendations in a report issued Thursday by the Project on Government Oversight to enhance the legitimacy of the nations highest court amid vicious political infighting over the confirmation of judges.

No ethics? No problem! Were the Supremes! quipped Walter Shaub , the former director of the Office of Government Ethics and now a senior fellow with POGO.

The Supreme Court is one of the most powerful and least accountable bodies in government, and it has no code of ethics. That needs to change, Shaub said in a statement, calling the situation a disgrace. The time has come for the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics or for Congress to impose one on it, he added.

The report, issued by panel of former judges and legal scholars convened last year by POGO, also called for reforming the courts approach to ethics and recusal, as well as the accessibility and transparency of its famously opaque decision-making.

The panel also recommended increasing the number of seats on the court, imposing term limits, and having smaller panels of justices hear cases as opposed to all nine presiding over each one to break up static voting blocks. All of the former judges on POGOs panel were appointed by Republican governors or presidents.

Interest in a code of conduct has surged recently, especially in some eyebrow-raising situations with new conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett .

Barrett this year refused to recuse herself from a case involving the right-wing dark-money group Americans for Prosperity Foundation , which spent at least $1 million to push her own confirmation in the Senate last year.

The foundations case before the Supreme Court challenged a California law demanding that major donors to charities be identified to the state. Barrett vigorously participated in the proceedings, didnt reveal her connection to the organization, and voted with the majority handing the foundation a win to keep its donors secret.

Nor did Barrett recuse herself from a case against the Royal Dutch Shell oil company, her fathers employer for 29 years . The city of Baltimore sued Shell, BP and several other oil companies demanding damages for the effects of climate change . Justice Samuel Alito, who owns stock in several oil and gas companies, did recuse himself from the case. The courts decision in the case was seen as favorable to Shell and the other oil companies.

In April Barrett nabbed a $2 million advance for a book about the court, reportedly with a conservative imprint of Penquin Random House . Will she recuse herself from any future case involving Penguin Random House or a competitor of the company thats paying her $2 million? It will be up to her.

Other justices who have written books while serving on the court face similar dilemmas.

And she's far from the first Justice to turn her high office into a profit center. Others currently sitting with her on the high court have done the same. What's ethics got do with justice? A lot. What's ethics got to do with a Justice? Absolutely nothing it seems.

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And she's far from the first Justice to turn her high office into a profit center. Others currently sitting with her on the high court have done the same. What's ethics got do with justice? A lot. What's ethics got to do with a Justice? Absolutely nothing it seems.
Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) April 19, 2021

Here are a few of the more recent books from a court with no ethics code:
Sonia Sotomayor: My Beloved World 2013
Stephen Breyer: Making Our Democracy Work: a Judges View 2010
Clarence Thomas: My Grandfathers Son: a Memoir 2007
Neil Gorsuch: A Republic, If You Can Keep It 2019

Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) April 19, 2021","type":"rich","meta":{"author":"Walter Shaub","author_url":"https://twitter.com/waltshaub","cache_age":86400,"description":"Here are a few of the more recent books from a court with no ethics code:Sonia Sotomayor: My Beloved World 2013Stephen Breyer: Making Our Democracy Work: a Judges View 2010Clarence Thomas: My Grandfathers Son: a Memoir 2007Neil Gorsuch: A Republic, If You Can Keep It 2019 Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) April 19, 2021\n\n","options":{"_hide_thread":{"label":"Hide previous Tweet in conversation thread","value":true},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","title":"Walter Shaub on 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Here are a few of the more recent books from a court with no ethics code:
Sonia Sotomayor: My Beloved World 2013
Stephen Breyer: Making Our Democracy Work: a Judges View 2010
Clarence Thomas: My Grandfathers Son: a Memoir 2007
Neil Gorsuch: A Republic, If You Can Keep It 2019
Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) April 19, 2021

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In a notorious case from 2003, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia went hunting and dined with with his longtime buddy Vice President Dick Cheney while Cheney had a case before the Supreme Court, a situation that would not have been tolerated for a lower court judge.

I do not believe my impartiality can reasonably be questioned, Scalia decided for himself in a memorandum about his apparent conflict of interest. Scalia chummed around with Cheney three weeks after the court decided to hear a case over whether the White House had to turn over documents relating to the energy task force Cheney headed in 2001. The justices effectively ruled in Cheneys favor at the time and the case was ultimately thrown out .