The Supreme Court unveiled its new Code of Conduct in much the same way a surly 9-year-old might say, “Fine! I’ll make my bed!”
In a passive-aggressive statement that sounded an awful lot like Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court essentially blamed all of us for misunderstanding just how ethical they already were.
“The absence of a Code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules. To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code . . .”
Apparently it was the public misunderstanding the Court’s existing “common law” ethics code that led to the new Code of Conduct — not the fact that Justice Clarence Thomas was living a life of luxury courtesy of a right-wing billionaire.
The new ethics code is filled with language about what a good justice “should” do, not what a justice must do and what happens if that justice doesn’t act in an ethical manner.
You could argue that the Boy Scout Law is more binding than SCOTUS’ Code of Conduct.
“A Justice should be patient, dignified, respectful, and courteous . . .”
“A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty . . . ” (Emphasis added.)
This would all be fairly laughable if a weakened court infiltrated by deep-pocketed Republican donors didn’t have so much sway over our democracy.
It’s chilling to read the January 6th insurrection day texts between Ginni Thomas and Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
What is even more chilling is to realize that Thomas’ texts were presented to the Supreme Court, where her husband, Justice Clarence Thomas, weighed in on the side of his election-denier wife.
Apparently ethics in the Supreme Court matter.
Unfortunately, the begrudging Code of Conduct doesn’t do much to rid the Court of super-yachts, influence campaigns and billionaire “friends.”
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