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Supreme Court adopts ethics code. Will it restore public trust?

For the first time, the Supreme Court of the United States has adopted a formal code of conduct.

The 14-page document, issued this week and signed by all nine justices, comes after months of public pressure over alleged ethical lapses. It codifies what until now had been an informal ethical standard governing the high court. It also comes after favorable views of the Supreme Court reached an all-time low this summer.

Why We Wrote This

U.S. Supreme Court justices had no code of ethics, until now. The new document lays out no penalties, and most of the rules will be enforced … by the justices themselves. Yet with public confidence in the court at an all-time low, doing anything is a positive step, experts say.

Whether the code’s existence itself will be enough to restore that trust remains to be seen. The code features the word “should” 53 times but is silent on what will happen if a justice veers from ethical standards outlined. And that, legal-watchers say, is a startling omission.

The lack of a code is “something that has been a glaring oversight for so many years. … But when it came time to put pen to paper, I think they fell short,” says Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, a nonprofit advocating for more transparency in the federal judiciary.

But it’s positive the court has responded to that public pressure, he adds. “They represent all of us in one way or another – not in how they decide cases, but as an institution. And on institutional practices, there should be public pressure.”

For the first time, the Supreme Court of the United States has adopted a formal code of conduct.

The 14-page document, issued this week and signed by all nine justices, comes after months of public pressure over alleged ethical lapses. It codifies what until now had been an informal ethical standard governing the high court. It also comes after favorable views of the Supreme Court reached an all-time low this summer, according to Pew Research Center.

Whether the code’s existence itself will be enough to restore that trust remains to be seen. The code features the word “should” 53 times but is silent on what will happen if a justice veers from ethical standards outlined. And that, legal-watchers say, is a startling omission.

Why We Wrote This

U.S. Supreme Court justices had no code of ethics, until now. The new document lays out no penalties, and most of the rules will be enforced … by the justices themselves. Yet with public confidence in the court at an all-time low, doing anything is a positive step, experts say.

The lack of a code is “something that has been a glaring oversight for so many years. … But when it came time to put pen to paper, I think they fell short,” says Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, a nonpartisan nonprofit advocating for more transparency in the federal judiciary.

But it’s positive the court has responded to that public pressure, he adds. “They represent all of us in one way or another – not in how they decide cases, but as an institution. And on institutional practices, there should be public pressure.”

For much of the year, the justices have faced questions about alleged ethical improprieties. The public scrutiny began with ProPublica reports detailing undisclosed gifts that Justice Clarence Thomas has received for decades from billionaire Republican donors, ranging from vacations and private jet travel to forgiven loans and tuition for a relative. Reports allege that Justice Samuel Alito also failed to disclose subsidized vacations. Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Neil Gorsuch faced questions about publishing sales and questions of recusal.

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