Liberal Critics of Supreme Court’s ‘Code of Ethics’ Come Out Swinging: ‘This is Bullsh*t’

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it had created a code of ethics for its justices, but liberal critics have taken to social media to deride the effort, with at least one calling it “bullshit.”

The main complaint was that the document did not offer any mechanism or procedure for how the code could be enforced.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) posted a video asking “really, really basic, basic questions” that he said the Supreme Court’s document did not address.

“Well, step one is done,” Whitehouse said, continuing:

The Supreme Court has at last acknowledged that it needs a code of ethics, and has formally adopted one. Which, it sort of had all along. So, the real test now is, how do you enforce it? Is there a place where you can file a complaint against a justice? Who sorts out the ridiculous complaints from the legitimate ones? For the legitimate ones, who does the fact-finding about what happened? Once you know what the facts are, who compares what has been done to what is allowed under the code of ethics? And, do we get a public report at the end that explains? Really, really basic, basic questions. They need to answer those and until they do, that job is not done.

Clara Jeffery, editor-in-chief of Mother Jones, called on Congress to get involved.

“SCOTUS has agreed to an ethics code. BUT,” Jeffery wrote. “‘The policy does not appear to impose any significant new requirements on them and leaves compliance to the justices themselves and does not create any other means of enforcement.’ Pathetic. Congress must act.”

The new code of conduct came in the wake of ProPublica reporting that accused Justice Clarence Thomas of taking undeclared trips funded by Republican billionaire Harlan Crow. ProPublica also reported that Justice Samuel Alito neglected to report a trip to Alaska in 2008.

Read the Supreme Court’s new code of conduct here.