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The U.S. Supreme Court was already struggling with its weakened reputation in the wake of a series of far-right rulings, but recent revelations have clearly made an unfortunate situation worse.
As regular readers know, Justice Clarence Thomas is facing an intensifying ethics mess that neither he nor his allies have been able to explain away. Another one of his far-right allies, Justice Neil Gorsuch, is now facing a separate ethics controversy of his own. Even Chief Justice John Roberts, who insists there’s no need for any kind of judicial reforms or changes to ethics laws, has faced some difficult questions of his own.
With this in mind, the Democratic majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing that seemed rather obvious: The panel and its members needed to have a conversation about Supreme Court ethics. Roberts was invited to participate in the discussion, but he refused for reasons that still don’t make sense.
The hearing happened anyway, though it was an exasperating affair. NBC News reported:
Senate Democrats at a Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday made the case for ethics reform at the Supreme Court, while Republicans complained that the effort is part of a campaign to delegitimize conservative justices over rulings that have angered liberals. ... Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who chairs the committee, said legislative action is needed because the Supreme Court, unlike lower court judges, largely police themselves. He said the current ethical standards for Supreme Court justices are lower than they are for local city council members.
Durbin’s point had the added benefit of being true. The nation’s highest court, beset by credible questions about ethical missteps, does not have a meaningful code of conduct or a mechanism to investigate alleged misconduct. The justices — who hold lifetime positions and answer to effectively no one — are largely expected to hold themselves accountable.
Today’s hearing offered Republicans a simple opportunity to either agree with reformers or make the case in support of the status quo. For the most part, GOP senators did neither — preferring instead to rant about assorted hobbyhorses that relate to the judiciary.
Republicans talked about Robert Bork. They talked about Thomas’ confirmation hearing 32 years ago. They took a keen interest in a provocative speech Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer delivered three years ago, which the New York Democrat soon followed with a statement of regret.
What did any of this have to do with Supreme Court ethics and possible reforms? No one seemed to have any idea, and by all appearances, Senate Republicans were completely indifferent to the non sequiturs.
Indeed, they kept going. The Judiciary Committee’s GOP members talked about protests near justices’ homes. And progressive advocacy groups they don’t like. And death threats. Sen. Ted Cruz seemed especially animated by the idea that Thomas has been the subject of criticism because he’s a Black conservative.
Again, the point of the hearing was about possible ethics reforms to an institution that apparently needs them. Do Republicans think that’s a good idea? A bad idea? Worthwhile? Unnecessary?
At times, it was hard to tell, since the GOP members who participated in the hearing were too often eager to avoid the point of the discussion.
If the goal was to impress conservative media outlets, I’m sure the antics were a great success, and some of these senators will no doubt be making on-air appearances this evening. Maybe their tirades will even be incorporated into their next fundraising appeals.
But observers were nevertheless left with an unsettling realization: There’s nothing inherently partisan or ideological about creating ethical standards for Supreme Court justices, but for the Republican contingent on the Senate Judiciary Committee, this is now a partisan issue for which they have little or no use.
This was an easy pass-fail test on an important issue. GOP senators flubbed it.