Chief Justice Roberts’s authorized counsel waved off Democrats’ name for a probe.
Earlier this 12 months, a bunch of Democrats urged Supreme Courtroom Chief Justice John Roberts to open a probe into Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito after journalists uncovered egregious corruption within the type of alleged violations of the court docket’s ethics code and monetary disclosure necessities.
Chief Justice Roberts rebuffed their name, as new reporting reveals, with only one sentence — revealing his obvious disinterest in reining in rampant corruption on his court docket.
Based on a letter obtained by The Hill, Roberts didn’t even personally tackle the lawmakers. Supreme Courtroom Authorized Counsel Ethan Torrey, writing on behalf of Roberts, replied as an alternative, saying merely that, “The Chief Justice has requested me to acknowledge your letter dated June 27, 2023, and to thanks very a lot for bringing your issues about these vital issues to his consideration.”
This single sentence, despatched in July, is everything of the reply that lawmakers acquired from the court docket, The Hill stories.
In June, 18 Home Democrats, led by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-New York), known as on the chief justice to determine an unbiased physique to analyze potential ethics breaches by justices, particularly with regard to Thomas and Alito.
“We write to specific our grave issues in regards to the Supreme Courtroom’s lack of inside construction to correctly implement the moral requirements to which you will have repeatedly asserted that the Courtroom adheres,” the lawmakers wrote. “It has develop into abundantly clear to us that the present inside mechanism employed by the Courtroom will not be ample to stop both the actual, or look of, impropriety of its members or to carry to account justices who break ethics guidelines.”
This week, 14 Democrats once more led by Consultant Goldman reiterated their call, stating even additional astonishing findings which have come out since their first letter and expressing disappointment within the court docket’s “inadequate and unavailing” response.
“If the Courtroom can and can police itself, as you will have insisted, we as soon as once more urge you to take motion. And if justices who’ve run roughshod over primary moral requirements are objecting to ethics reforms, then that additional confirms the necessity so that you can take decisive steps to revive confidence within the Courtroom,” the lawmakers wrote. “We face escalating allegations of moral transgressions by justices on the Courtroom that might by no means be tolerated below the Judicial Code of Ethics relevant to all different judges.”
Watchdog group Accountable.US sharply criticized Roberts for his curt response, which the group known as “the newest in an extended sample of boastful inaction” from the chief justice.
“Chief Justice Roberts sat again and watched whereas the Supreme Courtroom corruption disaster reached a fever pitch, inflicting public belief in his Courtroom to plummet. His weak, one-sentence response fully fails to satisfy the second,” stated Accountable.US Senior Adviser Kyle Herrig in a press release. “Roberts himself has the facility to vary the ethics requirements of our nation’s highest Courtroom, however hasn’t proven the braveness, forcing Congress to step in. As an alternative of dodging all duty, the Chief Justice ought to clear up his Courtroom.”
Roberts has been dealing with growing scrutiny in current months after failing to behave on the myriad of moral issues in entrance of the court docket. He has each refused to testify earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee and has led the court in refusing to undertake a binding ethics code. Lawmakers like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and legal experts have since known as for Roberts to face a subpoena that might pressure him to reply for Supreme Courtroom corruption.
