Supreme Court releases historic code of conduct following scrutiny

Supreme Court code of conduct overview: 

• Who: The United States Supreme Court released a code of conduct for the first time. 
• Why: The court released the rules after ethical issues with some justices’ conduct were raised, including Justice Clarence Thomas’ dealings with Republican donor Harlan Crow, according to reporting from ProPublica.
• Where: The Supreme Court is based in Washington, D.C.

The Supreme Court released a code of conduct for the first time in its 234-year history amid questions related to questionable ethical conduct from jurists, including reporting from ProPublica that Republican donor Harlan Crow has paid for expensive vacations and also private school tuition for Clarence Thomas’ family.

An introduction to the code says that many of its stipulations have been followed for years but the published code is an attempt to codify rules of conduct and dispel the notion that justices do not have to abide by ethical rules. 

“A Justice should not allow family, social, political, financial, or other relationships to influence official conduct or judgment,” the code says. “A Justice should neither knowingly lend the prestige of the judicial office to advance the private interests of the Justice or others nor knowingly convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the Justice.”

The Supreme Court ethics code includes standards to prevent justices from being a character witness for others or being involved in sharing of information regarding cases pending with the court.

Justices cannot comment publicly on matters before any court nor speak at political events, code says

Justices are not allowed to comment publicly on a matter before any court. Justices are also required to sit for all hearings unless they have been disqualified from a case and are assumed to be impartial on cases.

A justice, however, can disqualify themselves if they have a personal bias or prejudice related to a case or they have personal knowledge of contested evidence, the Supreme Court ethics code says.

A justice is allowed to speak at an event related to the law but cannot speak at events that are sponsored by a political party or a campaign for office.

Some legal experts, however, criticized the new code of ethics as ineffective, pointing to the fact that it spells out no consequences for justices who violate it.

“For me, the issue has never been the Court’s ‘failure to enact a formal ethics code’; it’s the extent to which there is no means by which we can have any confidence that *whatever* rules apply to the justices are actually being followed,” Steve Vladeck, a Texas law professor and author, wrote on X. “Today doesn’t move *that* needle at all.”

“A Code of Conduct with no meaningful enforcement mechanism is a mere gesture,” another law professor, Atlanta-based Anthony Michael Kreis, said on his X account.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently said it will hear a case from the federal government on whether the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) can ban bump stocks after an appeals court ruled that the ATF can’t ban the device.

Do you believe Supreme Court justices should be held to high ethical standards? Let us know in the comments.

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