Overhaul of Supreme Court ethics runs into GOP opposition
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats promised Tuesday to pursue stronger ethics rules for the Supreme Court in the wake of reports that Justice Clarence Thomas participated in luxury vacations and a real estate deal with a top GOP donor. Republicans made clear they strongly oppose the effort.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said lax ethical standards have created a lack of public confidence in the nation's highest court.
“The Supreme Court could step up and fix this themselves,” Durbin said as he opened the hearing. “For years, they have refused, and because the court will not act, Congress must.”
Republicans, however, criticized the hearing as an effort to destroy the reputation of Thomas, one of the staunchest conservative voices on the court. Their comments showed how unlikely it is that Congress will pass legislation on the matter, with the parties worlds apart when it comes to the credibility of the Supreme Court, particularly after the seismic decision last June that overturned abortion rights.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/overhaul-supreme-court-ethics-runs-183250121.html
Republicans Fine With Supreme Court Justices Having No Formal Code Of Ethics
WASHINGTON ― Senate Democrats have been demanding congressional action in response to last month’s bombshell report about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury gifts from a GOP megadonor.
They’re holding a Tuesday hearing to examine Supreme Court ethics reforms. They asked Chief Justice John Roberts to testify (he declined), so now they’re pressing him to come up with a formal code of conduct for the court. If he won’t do it, Democrats have a bill that will.
That’s a stark contrast to Republicans, who have almost unanimously retreated into silence or scoffed at the idea that Congress should do anything to serve as a check on justices’ behavior. There’s only one GOP senator backing any ethics reforms to the court: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska introduced a bill with Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) that would require the justices to create a code of conduct for themselves and make it public on the court’s website. In other words, the bare minimum.
HuffPost asked GOP senators late last week what they think of Murkowski’s proposal and, more broadly, why they don’t think the Supreme Court is way overdue for ethics reforms.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-fine-supreme-court-justices-224833525.html
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