23 November 2023 - US Supreme Court unveils new ethics code
US Supreme Court takes on ethics row with first-ever code of conduct
Anthony Zurcher (BBC News, 13/11/2023)
The US Supreme Court on Monday released its first ever set of ethics rules governing its nine justices.
The nine-page "code of conduct" comes as the most powerful legal body in America is under increasing scrutiny following recent news reports of gifts and holiday arrangements lavished on several of its jurists.
The Supreme Court’s Self-Excusing Ethics Code
Jeannie Suk Gersen (The New Yorker, 21/11/2023)
Last week, the Supreme Court issued a first-ever code of conduct for Justices. It is not a set of rules designed to redress past ethical breaches and prevent future ones but rather a defense brief arguing that there have been no ethical breaches to redress and prevent.
The Supreme Court’s new ethics code is a joke
Ian Millhiser (Vox, 14/11/2023)
On Monday, the Supreme Court released a new “code of conduct” laying out ethical principles that the justices claim they have always adhered to — and arguing that the only reason such a code is necessary is because the Court’s critics don’t understand how things actually work.
Supreme Court’s new ethics code is a bigger deal than the critics claim
Editorial Board (The Washington Post, 14/11/2023)
“These rules and principles are not new,” declares the Supreme Court, in the introduction to its inaugural code of conduct, which it released on Monday. What, then, is the point of the code — particularly because, as many critics have noted, it lacks any mechanism to compel justices to follow it? The justices were already supposed to observe, in Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s words, “the highest standards” of ethics, yet recent revelations show some of them were not.