This comes after pressure over revelations of undisclosed luxury trips & hobnobbing with wealthy benefactors.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/9534167

The code contains sections codifying that justices should not allow outside relationships to influence their official conduct or judgment, placing restrictions on justices participating in fundraising and reiterating limits on the accepting of gifts. It also states that justices should not “to any substantial degree” use their judicial resources or staff to engage in non-official activities.

Note that it sounds like this has NOT been officially adopted yet and so far there is no obvious means of enforcement.

See also: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/13/us/politics/supreme-court-ethics-code.html

Edit: Politco has posted the PDF of the “CODE OF CONDUCT FOR JUSTICES OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES”

    •  memfree   ( @memfree@beehaw.org ) OPEnglish
      5•8 months ago

      Good catch!

      For those who don’t know, when a legal doc says “shall” it means one MUST comply or get in trouble. If it says “should”, it means you don’t really have to care.

  •  AutoTL;DR   ( @autotldr@lemmings.world ) BEnglish
    1•8 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday adopted its first formal code of conduct governing the ethical behavior of its nine justices, bowing to months of outside pressure over revelations of undisclosed luxury trips and hobnobbing with wealthy benefactors.

    That absence, the statement said, "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.

    The court has been buffeted for months by revelations regarding justices over undisclosed trips on private jets, luxury vacations, real estate and recreational vehicle deals, and more.

    The news outlet ProPublica has detailed luxury trips taken for years by Thomas provided by Texas businessman Harlan Crow as well as real estate transactions involving the justice and the billionaire Republican donor.

    ProPublica also reported that the conservative Koch network of political donors, which has had multiple cases before the court, has brought Thomas in recent years to its summit meetings.

    A report by Senate Democrats in October also found that Thomas apparently failed to repay at least a “significant portion” of a $267,230 loan he received from longtime friend Anthony Welters to buy a luxury motor coach.

    The original article contains 494 words, the summary contains 203 words. Saved 59%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!