The United States Supreme Court has formally adopted a code of conduct following allegations of ethics lapses among its members.
The court on Monday issued a 14-page document that included five canons of conduct on various issues, including when justices should recuse themselves and what kind of external activities they are allowed to engage in.
Supreme Court Code of Conduct
In the statement signed by all nine justices, they said that the undersigned justices were promulgating the Code of Conduct to collectively gather all in one place the ethics rules and principles that would guide the conduct of the members of the nation's highest court.
Most of the rules outlined in the new code are not inherently new. However, the lack of a published code has, in recent years, led to the misunderstanding that the court's justices regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rule.
The new code is also based on rules followed by lower court judges and appears to build on a statement that the justices released in April. At the time, they said that they reaffirmed and restated their commitment to ethics principles, an announcement that failed to fend off criticism, as per NBC News.
Furthermore, the code of conduct requires justices to "uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary" and "avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities." Recently, the high court has come under mounting pressure to act following a series of reports that raised questions about whether justices were following the rules.
Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee have also proposed legislation imposing a new ethics code on the court. Officials noted that they were being forced to act due to the justices' failure to do so.
The chair of the committee, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said that the Supreme Court's actions were "important steps" but argued that they fall short of what "we could and should expect." This includes leaving too many decisions up to individual justices.
Lapses in Ethics
The new code follows the deterioration of public trust in the court after various revelations, including Justice Clarence Thomas receiving gifts and travel from Harlan Crow, a Republican donor. Another justice who received criticism is Samuel Alto for failing to disclose a fishing trip with Paul Singer, a big Republican donor who has cases before the Supreme Court, according to NPR.
Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan publicly expressed their support for calls for an ethics code in recent weeks. The new code makes the high court more specific about what justices can do.
Despite the adoption decision, it is still unclear how the new code of conduct of the Supreme Court will be enforced. The new code also tells justices when they should disqualify themselves in a proceeding.
These include when their impartiality "might reasonably be questioned, that is, where an unbiased and reasonable person who is aware of all relevant circumstances would doubt that the Justice could fairly discharge his or her duties," said CBS News.
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