• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Open Government>
  3. ethics>

Democrats, experts call on Supreme Court to let some sunshine in

Bill Theobald
June 21, 2019
Supreme Court justices
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images North America

Supreme Court justices should be covered by a written code of conduct and should publicly disclose their own finances and those instances when they recuse themselves from cases.

That was the general view of several expert witnesses at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Friday.

"Our courts must be fair and impartial," said Democrat Hank Johnson of Georgia, who chaired the meeting of the panel that oversees the federal court system. "But also, our courts must appear to be fair and impartial."


Johnson has introduced legislation that would require the Judicial Conference of the United States to write a code for the Supreme Court. Judges on the federal trial courts and appeals courts are covered by written rules for ethical behavior, but the justices have long resisted adopting one for themselves. They say it would be unnecessary, and unconstitutional if imposed on them by Congress.

The Johnson bill has 51 co-sponsors, all Democrats. Similar language, however, was included in HR 1, the comprehensive government reform bill House Democrats passed along party lines this spring. But HR 1 has no future in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Johnson, the other Democrats on his panel and the witnesses he called agreed that greater ethical transparency is needed to boost the reputation of the court.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The most recent Gallup poll on public attitudes toward the Supreme Court found 51 percent approval and 40 percent disapproval. That was in September 2018, just as the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings were calling the moral standing of the justices and their commitment to nonpartisanship into question. But the approval ratings were not much different from surveys in the previous decade.

Chief Justice John Roberts has said a code for the court is unnecessary because the justices already consult a variety of sources when considering the ethical concerns related to cases. The other argument is that having the legislative branch impose rules on the judiciary would violate the Constitution's separation of powers.

But professor Amanda Frost of American University, an expert on judicial ethics, testified in favor of a mandated code because the conduct of several justices has clearly violated the standards for other federal judges. She noted that the late Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas both spoke at fundraisers for the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, while Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been openly critical of President Donald Trump.

Gabe Roth, executive director of the advocacy group Fix the Court, testified that the government should publish online the financial disclosure forms that justices are required to fill out, instead of his group having to obtain them and publish them on its website.

One lawmaker raising concerns was Republican Martha Roby of Alabama, who said the additional transparency being proposed might put justices in physical danger. She cited the 1989 assassination in Alabama of a veteran federal appeals court judge, Robert Smith Vance, killed when he opened a mail bomb at his home.

"These security concerns are not hypothetical," Roby said.

From Your Site Articles
  • The Supreme Court is undemocratic - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Supreme Court justices recused themselves 180 times in most ... ›
  • The Supreme Court's Recusal Problem - The New York Times ›
  • Ginsburg, Kavanaugh, other Supreme Court justices' financial ... ›
  • Financial Disclosures | Fix the Court ›
ethics

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Julio A. Alicea

Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

Sarah K. Burke

Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

Our Staff

What "Progress" should look like, and what we get wrong

Damien De Pyle

The long kiss goodnight: Nancy Pelosi and the protracted decay of public office

Kevin Frazier

Demanding corporate responsibility for food system challenges

C.Anne Long
latest News

The show must go on

Amy Lockard
2h

Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Rick LaRue
Jamie Raskin
3h

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

Michael Beckel
Ariana Rojas
20 September

The alchemy of laughter

Pedro Silva
20 September

Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Dave Anderson
20 September

Learning to make “the right call” in the right moments

Lisa Kay Solomon
19 September
Videos
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Our Staff
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: How states hold fair elections

Our Staff
14 September

Podcast: The MAGA Bubble, Bidenonmics and Playing the Victim

Debilyn Molineaux
David Riordan
12 September

Podcast: Defending the founding principles of our government

Our Staff
07 September

Podcast: The continuing effects of summer heat and student loan repayments

Our Staff
05 September
Recommended
The show must go on

The show must go on

Big Picture
To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Big Picture
Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Constitution Day conversation with Jamie Raskin: Preserving democracy today and tomorrow

Big Picture
Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Stephen Richer

State
The alchemy of laughter

The alchemy of laughter

Comedy
Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Work/family balance should be a top tier policy area

Contributors