The recent news about Clarence Thomas’ financial entanglements with GOP megadonor Harlan Crow should be alarming to every American. This is what happens when the highest court in the land is given free rein to police itself. Clarence Thomas isn’t the first justice to engage in unethical behavior. And if Congress continues to ignore the need for a Supreme Court code of ethics, he won’t be the last.
Of the nine justices currently on the bench, four have been called out for unethical behavior and connections in the last year. Neil Gorsuch sold property to the head of a law firm with cases in front of the Supreme Court. Samuel Alito dined with anti-abortion activists and allegedly leaked decisions on reproductive health. Chief Justice John Roberts’ wife has earned millions of dollars from law firms with business before the Supreme Court.
Congress has a constitutional duty to act as a check on the Supreme Court and restore faith in our judicial system. It’s time they act and pass a Supreme Court code of ethics.
Bari St. James
Cayucos
This article appears in Jun 22 – Jul 2, 2023.
Before we go charging off to get Congress to establish some sort of mechanism to enforce ethics, you might consider whether or not politicians are the sort of people we want to put in charge of the court, either directly or indirectly. The power to discipline is the power to control. Democrats may not always be in control, and at some point you may find that Republicans control both houses and the presidency. Would you want them to be able to remove liberal justices? As we have seen from earlier situations, “ethics” can be pretty subjective, and the level of outrage expressed by politicians curiously seems to closely track their political advantage.