US Supreme Court Creates ‘Code of Conduct’ To Address Recent Ethics Concerns

The U.S. Supreme Court announced it has created a “code of conduct” that all nine justices have signed, in light of ethics questions facing the institution.

The Supreme Court has been under intense scrutiny since the April publication of a ProPublica article that accused Justice Clarence Thomas of taking trips funded by a Republican billionaire and not reporting them. In June, ProPublica reported that Justice Samuel Alito neglected to report a trip to Alaska.

“The nine justices, they are not bound by a formal ethics code, unlike lower courts, which are,” said CNN’s Paula Reid. “In recent months, really over the past couple years, there’s been a series of big stories about things the justices have received and sometimes from people who are close to cases they will hear. So, this is interesting, because the court says that they derived this code of conduct from the one that the lower courts abide by. But they didn’t accept it wholesale. So right now, we’re going through trying to figure out what is different, what is new, but Democrats in congress are threatening to pass legislation to mandate ethics reform.”

Reid said the big question is, “Ok, how are you going to enforce this?”

“It’s a significant first step, let me put it that way,” said CNN contributor Joan Biskupic. She said Chief Justice John Roberts is saying “they’re trying to promulgate a code.”

“But there are so many open questions here about how this will get done, who will be the judge of that, how binding will this be, what if somebody in the public or Congress, which is very much scrutinizing the justices right now, has a complaint, how will that be resolved?” Biskupic said.

Watch the clip above via CNN.