The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to adopt its first code of ethics after months of scrutiny from Senate Democrats who have accused the court of ignoring the ethics rules that constrain lower courts.
In a statement issued Monday, the justices insisted that they have always held themselves to the ethical standards that govern the conduct of other federal judges, but acknowledged that the lack of a formal, written code of the kind maintained by lower courts has led to the appearance of impropriety.
“The absence of a Code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules,” the justices wrote. “To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct.”
All nine justices signed on to the new policy on Monday, four days after they last met to discuss the matter. The ethics code’s five canons of conduct require all Supreme Court justices to hold to the highest standards and refrain from any political activity while in office, or else be disqualified from their seats.
The decision to adopt a formal ethics code for the first time in the High Court’s history was made in response to a wave of negative coverage, and resulting attacks from Senate Democrats, accusing the Court’s conservative justices of concealing relationships with wealthy patrons.
Justice Clarence Thomas came under fire earlier this year after ProPublica reported that he had failed to disclose luxury trips and gifts from wealth donors, including Texas billionaire Harlan Crow. Thomas maintains that he has always complied with the Court’s financial-disclosure rules, which did not require the disclosure of personal travel before 2022. There is no evidence that Thomas — or Justice Samuel Alito, who has been criticized along similar lines — have ever accepted gifts from parties with business before the Court.
“Justice Thomas’s critics allege that he failed to report gifts from wealthy friends. Untrue,” Thomas’s lawyer Elliot S. Berke said in a statement released alongside the justice’s 2022 financial-disclosure form. “He has never accepted a gift from anyone with business before the Court. For anyone who knows him at all, it is clear that no one influences Justice Clarence Thomas’s jurisprudence. But friends are dear, close, and separate. He has included all other reportable gifts on his disclosure forms.”
Last week, Senator Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) said the justices could stop the Democratic push to impose an ethics code on the court by creating their own policy. On Thursday, Senate Republicans delayed a push by Durbin to subpoena wealthy conservatives who have relationships with Supreme Court justices by threatening to subpoena progressives who fall into the same category.