The Senate Judiciary Committee moved forward on Thursday to support new legislation requiring the United States Supreme Court to adopt a new ethics code.
The situation follows a controversy involving Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' relationship with a Republican real estate magnate. The decision follows a pledge that Democratic lawmakers made to take legislative action after a series of reports on the incident.
New Supreme Court Ethics Bill
The new bill is known as the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, which Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse sponsored. It cleared the committee largely along party lines in an 11-10 vote.
During the committee's consideration of the measure, GOP lawmakers introduced several amendments that referenced the protests outside of the Supreme Court justices' homes, the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court expansion, as well as imposing new rules on reporters who cover news about the high court, as per CBS News.
However, all Republican lawmakers' proposed changes were unsuccessful except for one. It was an amendment proposed by Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana that, after modification, condemns racist attacks and comments against current or former justices, including Thomas. The proposed change passed unanimously.
Members of the GOP argued that Whitehouse's bill would be dead on arrival in the full Senate and the Republican-controlled House. More than two dozen Senate Democrats support the legislation, which would require the Supreme Court to adopt a new code of conduct for justices. It would also require the high court to implement procedures to handle complaints regarding judicial misconduct.
The ethics bill calls for the nation's highest court to establish procedural rules that would require each party in a case or entity filing friend-of-the-court briefs to disclose gifts, income, or reimbursement provided to the court members. It also tightens regulations for when justices or judges are required to recuse themselves from various cases.
Addressing Supreme Court Judge Misconduct
According to NBC News, another lead author of the bill, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, said that the measure is a crucial first step in restoring the public's confidence in the court after a series of reports of justices' misconduct and ethical failures.
The ethics bill would give the Supreme Court 180 days to adopt the required changes and regulations. It also allows the public to submit ethics complaints that a randomly selected panel of lower court judges must review.
The bill would need 60 votes in the full Senate following the recent vote to defeat an expected Republican filibuster. If it does clear the Senate, it would still have to receive approval from the GOP-led House, whose leaders have said they are not interested in considering the bill.
Republican lawmakers argued that the ethics bill was simply a partisan attack on the Supreme Court's conservative judges, arguing that Congress was severely overstepping its authority. Sen. Richard Blumenthal responded that GOP opposition to the bill would only hurt their popularity in polls, said CNN.
