{"id":22289,"date":"2025-05-29T14:12:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T18:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=22289"},"modified":"2025-06-02T13:41:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T17:41:24","slug":"merkley-wyden-colleagues-lead-the-charge-to-establish-binding-code-of-ethics-for-u-s-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/merkley-wyden-colleagues-lead-the-charge-to-establish-binding-code-of-ethics-for-u-s-supreme-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Merkley, Wyden, Colleagues Lead the Charge to Establish Binding Code of Ethics for U.S. Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act would require the Supreme Court to adopt a binding and enforceable code of ethical conduct<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress, the executive branch, all lower federal courts, and every state supreme court have ethics guardrails and a mechanism for enforcing ethics rules<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington, D.C. \u2013 Oregon\u2019s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden announced today they joined their colleagues to reintroduce the bicameral Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act<\/em>. The legislation would require Supreme Court justices to adopt a binding code of conduct and create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code of conduct and other laws. Led by U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and U.S. Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA), the SCERT Act<\/em> would improve disclosure and transparency when a justice has a connection to a party or amicus before the Court, end the practice of justices ruling on their own conflicts of interests, and require justices to explain their recusal decisions to the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAll Supreme Court justices should be held to a binding code of ethics, just like all other federal judges, the executive branch, and Members of Congress,\u201d dijo Merkley.<\/strong> \u201cThanks to the Federalist Society, the highest court in the land has become compromised, pushing a right-wing, corporate viewpoint above all else. To restore a government in service of the people\u2014not the powerful\u2014it\u2019s clear we need to pass the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s imperative the U.S. Judicial Branch serve its Constitutional duty to uphold laws set by Congress, not accept lavish gifts from constituents scheming to curry favor with the court,\u201d\u00a0dijo Wyden.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve been watchdogging\u00a0Clarence Thomas\u2019 unethical acceptance of gifts<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0sounding the alarm that he and any other judge who won\u2019t recuse themselves in cases where they have a vested interest are compromising their oaths to defend the Constitution. If they won\u2019t recuse themselves, we must prevent any egregious breach of ethics by passing the\u00a0Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In the last two years,\u00a0informar<\/a>\u00a0de<\/a>\u00a0ProPublica and the New York Times has exposed Justice Clarence Thomas\u2019s long record of accepting undisclosed gifts from politically active right-wing billionaires. Further reporting from\u00a0ProP\u00fablica<\/a>\u00a0found that Justice Samuel Alito accepted private jet travel to an all-expenses-paid vacation from a hedge fund billionaire who had contributed over $80 million to Republican political organizations and had business before the Court. Justice Alito\u2019s luxury vacation was organized by Leonard Leo, the engineer of the current right-wing Supreme Court supermajority at the behest of a cadre of right-wing billionaires and special interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

El SCERT Act<\/em> would address these ethical shortfalls and help restore Americans\u2019 faith in the judicial branch. The bill would:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Develop a Process for Enforcement of a Code of Conduct<\/p>\n\n\n\n