TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

Supreme Court Adopts 1st Ethics Code

Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Nov 13, 2023
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court has announced it is adopting its first code of ethics. In an unsigned statement, the justices said they have long adhered to ethics standards. “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,” the justices wrote. “To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct.” The Associated Press reports the impetus for an ethics code was sparked by a series of stories by ProPublica detailing the relationship between billionaire donors Harlan Crow and the Koch brothers and Justice Clarence Thomas. Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor have also come under scrutiny. Three justices, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh, have voiced support for an ethics code in recent months.

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