It's hardly a new thing for them, but now they're applying it to judicial ethics.
From AP, dated 5/2/2023 -
Overhaul of Supreme Court ethics runs into GOP opposition
Senate Democrats promised Tuesday to pursue stronger ethics rules for the
Supreme Court in the wake of reports that Justice Clarence Thomas
participated in luxury vacations and a real estate deal with a top GOP donor.
Republicans made clear they strongly oppose the effort.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
said lax ethical standards have created a lack of public confidence in the
nation’s highest court.
“The Supreme Court could step up and fix this themselves,” Durbin said as
he opened the hearing. “For years, they have refused, and because the
court will not act, Congress must.”
Republicans, however, criticized the hearing as an effort to destroy the
reputation of Thomas, one of the staunchest conservative voices on the
court. Their comments showed how unlikely it is that Congress will pass
legislation on the matter, with the parties worlds apart when it comes to
the credibility of the Supreme Court, particularly after the seismic
decision last June that overturned abortion rights.
There *is* a partisan division on the subject of ethics for justices on the Supreme Court.
From The Hill -
Pence vows to stand behind ‘principled jurist’ Clarence Thomas amid scrutiny
Former Vice President Mike Pence vowed to stand behind Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Saturday, as the justice faces criticism cent reports about his close relationship with GOP megadonor Harlan Crow.
“Ever since his nomination to the Supreme Court in 1991 Justice Thomas has been maliciously attacked by the Left, including by then Sen. Joe Biden,” Pence tweeted. “The attacks on his character are continuing today, and it’s appalling to see.”
Thomas’ nomination hearings, which were led by then-Sen. Joe Biden as head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, were particularly fraught due to sexual harassment allegations made by Anita Hill. Hill worked with Thomas at the Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“I stand with Justice Clarence Thomas and call on every American to join me in defending this good man and principled jurist,” Pence added.
It's not just Pence, either.
From Roll Call, dated 5/2/2023 -
Senate panel splits on power to force Supreme Court ethics code
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee spent a hearing Tuesday making the case for legislation that would put the Supreme Court under an ethics code if the justices didn’t do so themselves, but witnesses were split as to whether Congress has the power to do so.
The backers of proposed bills argued that the justices have waited for too long to impose their own ethics code, exemplified by recent reports about undisclosed luxury trips and a real estate transaction Justice Clarence Thomas received from a billionaire GOP donor.
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Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said creating an ethics code for the court may create a “cottage industry” of advocates filing ethics complaints in cases strategically, making it “ripe for seeding the field with politicization of the Supreme Court.”
Tillis said he could not imagine the Founding Fathers supporting such a check on the justices.
“That seems to be far afield from anything the Founding Fathers would have considered appropriate,” Tillis said.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the committee, said he would oppose any effort by Congress to legislate ethical rules for the Supreme Court and called Democrats' concerns part of a “concentrated effort” to undermine the court more broadly.
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Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., drew parallels between Tuesday’s hearing and Democrats’ opposition to Judge Robert Bork’s failed Supreme Court nomination in the 1980s, the “high-tech lynching” of Thomas during his initial confirmation and opposition to recent Republican-appointed justices.
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In a floor speech Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tied Democrats’ concerns to decades of dissatisfaction with Republican judges.
Clarence Thomas, and other Republican judges with ethics problems, can always count on other Rs to protect them from accountability for their actions.
From a HuffPost article on the subject, dated 5/1/2023 -
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Thomas has also repeatedly failed to file financial disclosures properly. In 2011, he reportedly failed to disclose the income that his wife, Ginni Thomas, received from a mix of conservative think tanks, political groups and educational entities over 13 years.
Despite all of this, Republican senators seem content to let the nation’s highest court carry on as it currently is. Some are dismissing Democrats’ latest efforts as purely political. Some argue it wouldn’t be constitutional for lawmakers to meddle in the court’s affairs.
“Ohhh, I don‘t know about that,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said of Murkowski’s proposal. “Separation of powers?”
“There’s a reason the separate branches of government were established,” said [Sen. Cynthia] Lummis [R-WY]. “Good heavens, they’re judges. This is something they can and should do on their own.”
[Sen Chuck] Grassley [R-IA] said it would be “inappropriate and unnecessary” for senators to take any action to impose ethics rules on Supreme Court justices because of the new disclosure regulations put in place for federal courts last month.
Respect for the Supreme Court, or any other court, for that matter, is based primarily on its credibility.
And Chief Justice John Roberts' diligence in protecting his court and fomenting a culture of corruption there on serves to undermine the credibility of *all* US courts.
