The Supreme Court is 'determined' to 'defy ethical accountability': journalist

03 May 2023

The U.S. Supreme Court's reputation continues to suffer. According to a Marquette Law School poll released in late March, only 44 percent of adults approve of the job the High Court is doing — which is even lower than the 47 percent approval in a Marquette poll released in January. Meanwhile, Gallup has, in recent months, found approval for Court hovering around 40 percent.

A variety of things have damaged the High Court's reputation, from the wildly unpopular overturning of Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in 2022 to reports that Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, far-right activist Ginni Thomas, aggressively tried to help overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Another factor is ProPublica's reporting that Justice Thomas has, for more than 20 years, been going on luxury vacations paid for by billionaire donor Harlan Crow — and failed to report them.

In light of all this bad publicity, the Court's critics have been calling for a code of ethics — something that, journalist Shan Wu laments in an op-ed published by the Daily Beast on May 3, the justices are resisting.

"The only thing the Supreme Court seems united about is its refusal to adopt a judicial ethics code," Wu explains. "Despite being rift by historically high tensions and distrust following the leak of the Dobbs draft opinion, all nine justices signed a statement in which they effectively rejected adopting a mandatory code of ethics for the nation’s highest court — the only court that functions without a judicial ethics code."

That statement, Wu adds, was attached to a letter that Chief Justice John Roberts sent Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Illinois). After ProPublica's reporting on Justice Thomas' relationship with Crow, Durbin invited Roberts to testify on the matter; Roberts declined.

"The tone-deaf insinuation in Roberts' letter is that chief justices should only testify about unimportant 'administrative matters' and not important matters concerning a justice's potential integrity," Wu observes. "But the real shocker is what he appended to the letter — a 'Statement of Ethics Principles and Practices' in which liberal and conservative justices alike all unanimously endorse the current 'trust us, we are the Supreme Court' approach to ethics and recusals."

Wu warns that the High Court's opposition to an ethics code does nothing to improve its damaged reputation.

"As is often repeated, SCOTUS is not a self-enforcing arm of the government," Wu argues. "It depends on public trust for its power, and right now, that trust is at an all-time low. Yet the unanimous opinion of all nine justices is to defy the ethical accountability and transparency of an enforceable code of ethics."

Wu continues, "In this sense, the High Court seems united in its determination to keep dragging its own esteem ever lower."

Read Shan Wu's full Daily Beast op-ed at this link (subscription required).

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