Team,
This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the dire need for Supreme Court ethics reform. I serve on the Committee and I’ve long led the effort to restore public trust in the highest court in the country by enacting an enforceable code of ethics.
Here’s why: In recent weeks, it has become more and more clear that these standards are badly needed – the Supreme Court is playing out of bounds of the ethics rules for all other federal judges, without consequences, accountability, or transparency.
We held this hearing in the wake of the news that Justice Clarence Thomas received lavish undisclosed trips and gifts from a Republican billionaire, Harlan Crow. We’ve also learned that Justice Thomas failed to disclose property sales to his billionaire friend, in an apparent violation of existing ethics rules. Just this week, a new report showed that Justice Thomas also didn’t disclose that Crow paid for his family member’s private school tuition.
Clearly the Court needs to clean up this mess – and we invited Chief Justice Roberts to join us at this week’s hearing. But rather than meet with us to address the issues at hand, Justice Roberts declined to so much as attend the hearing.
We need better recusal and disclosure rules, and a referee to enforce them.
But we also need justices who hold themselves to the highest standards possible when it comes to serving the American people. Judges are supposed to have excellent judgment. The American people are right to be deeply concerned when they see a Justice of the Supreme Court hiding an extraordinary financial relationship with a highly partisan billionaire.
Thank you,
Sheldon
