SCOTUS finally releases a statement on ethics, but not about the justices you’re thinking about

The U.S. Supreme Court Poses For Official Group Photo

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 07: United States Supreme Court (front row L-R) Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan, (back row L-R) Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pose for their official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building on October 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The Supreme Court of the United States adopted an official and long-awaited Code of Conduct for Justices Monday, just weeks after Justice Amy Coney Barrett publicly said that all nine justices considered an ethics code “a good idea.”

Although the 14-page code details a number of ethical expectations, it conspicuously excludes any mention of enforcement mechanism or penalty for violation. The legal community appears divided over the significance of the omission; while some fault the justices for making much ado about a lamentably impotent set of ethics standards, others say that a more forceful enforcement mechanism would be constitutionally impossible.

As the justices noted in their introductory statement, many of the code’s requirements are “not new,” and mirrored ethics rules from other sources including those that apply to other members of the federal judiciary.

They further explained that their decision to issue a formal code of conduct was an attempt to correct a recent “misunderstanding” that the justices operated “unrestricted by any ethics rules.” The code, they explained, was merely an accounting of the standards to which they have already been holding themselves.

More specifically, the code requires that justices uphold the independence of the federal judiciary, avoid all forms of impropriety and outside influence, operate without bias or fear of criticism, recuse themselves in cases to which they are personally connected, avoid engaging in activities that “detract from the dignity” of official duties, and refrain from engaging in political activity.

All nine justices signed on to the new code.

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