Although I agree with this bill, the NYT calling it “strict new ethics rules” is a bit much. Reading the requirements in the bill itself, it struck me as legislating that SCOTUS justices do the bare ethical minimum required of most every other judge - in other words, it’s the type of bill that shows up when an organization demonstrates that it is incapable of self-policing.
What’s shocking is 100% opposition by Republicans to a bill requiring a Justice to recuse if a close family member receives a large gift from a litigant - literally, that’s in the bill.
How is this controversial? Senator Graham says why - requiring the court to act ethically will “destroy” the court. He’s saying, we don’t care if justices are ethical so long as they’re partisan.
Congress needs to step up here.
An amendment would require ratification from 3/4 of the state legislatures, an amendment is not going to pass. The US Constitution explicitly gives the Congress the power to “organize the court” in Article 3, it is incontovertable that the Congress has the power to add Justices and impose ethical requirements on the judiciary. Congress has added Justices before and currently imposes ethical requirements on the lower courts.