The United States Supreme Court has recently unveiled an official “code of conduct” aimed at addressing allegations surrounding justices’ disclosure of gifts. This code, a set of guidelines echoing procedures already followed by lower court judges, outlines when justices should recuse themselves from cases and details the disclosure of outside activities.
The 15-page code of conduct document was written as a commitment by justices to “uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary” and to “avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities.” All nine justices signed off on the canons listed in the code.
“The undersigned Justices are promulgating this Code of Conduct to set out succinctly and gather in one place the ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the Members of the Court,” the code of conduct reads.
While these rules were already in practice at the Supreme Court, the formalization of the code in writing serves as a public commitment to transparency and ethical conduct. The move comes in response to allegations of Supreme Court justices not properly disclosing gifts they have received.
“For the most part these rules and principles are not new: The Court has long had the equivalent of common law ethics rules, that is, a body of rules derived from a variety of sources, including statutory provisions, the code that applies to other members of the federal judiciary, ethics advisory opinions issued by the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct, and historic practice.”
“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.”
Supreme Court Code of Conduct
The justices’ collective effort to implement this code of conduct aims to provide clarity and coherence to the ethical standards guiding their conduct. At a time where the court is seen as increasingly partisan and divisive, it is an important step in reassuring Americans of its legitimacy.
