Samuel
Corum/Bloomberg)
Is
it
a
sign
of
a
healthy
judiciary
when
the
country’s
largest
professional
association
of
lawyers
has
to
formally
vote
on
whether
Supreme
Court
justices
should
follow
basic
ethical
rules?
Asking
for
an
American
in
the
year
2025.
Earlier
today,
the
American
Bar
Association
unanimously
adopted
a
resolution
urging
the
justices
to
implement
a
binding
and
enforceable
ethics
code
—
one
that,
at
minimum,
meets
the
standards
already
required
of
lower
federal
judges.
Chief
Justice
Roberts
will
not
do
a
damn
thing.
That’s
not
fair.
He
might
characterize
it
as
a
dangerous
attack
on
the
federal
courts
to
suggest
justices
shouldn’t
be
stuffing
their
pockets
with
billionaire
money
like
they’re
in
the
money
booth
from
Concentration,
Or
he
might
ignore
it
and
write
another
lengthy
diatribe
about
typewriters.
In
either
event,
he
won’t
do
anything
to
actually
address
the
ethical
quagmire.
The
resolution,
proposed
by
the
New
York
City
Bar
Association
and
co-sponsored
by
the
King
County
Bar
Association
of
Washington,
is
hardly
radical.
As
City
Bar
President
Muhammad
U.
Faridi
put
it,
ensuring
the
Supreme
Court
adheres
to
the
“highest
ethical
standards”
is
about
protecting
public
confidence
in
the
Court.
But
Roberts
compared
people
being
mean
to
the
Court
on
Twitter
to
judges
having
crosses
burned
in
their
yards
in
the
60s
so
he’s
got
to
be
cooking
up
quite
the
disingenuous
analogy
for
this
one.
The
ethics
debate
is
not
partisan
except
to
the
extent
one
side
of
the
ideological
aisle
is
disproportionately
caught
with
their
hands
in
the
cookie
jar.
Clarence
Thomas
has
been
enjoying
undisclosed
luxury
vacations
(and
then
some),
Sam
Alito’s
moonlighting
as
an
aristocrat
(literally),
and
Chief
Justice
John
Roberts
defiantly
insists
that
any
attempt
to
hold
the
justices
to
an
ethical
standard
amounts
to
a
constitutional
crisis.
In
late
2023,
the
Supreme
Court
tried
to
defuse
mounting
criticism
by
releasing
a
“Code
of
Conduct”
with
no
enforcement
mechanism,
no
penalties
for
violations,
and
no
meaningful
changes
to
how
the
justices
operate.
It
turned
upside
down
faster
than
an
American
flag
at
the
Alito
home.
The
idea
that
the
most
powerful
court
in
the
country
should
be
held
to
the
same
standard
as
a
district
court
judge
shouldn’t
be
controversial.
And
yet,
here
we
are,
still
having
to
talk
about
it.
Public
trust
in
the
Supreme
Court
is
already
in
freefall.
If
the
justices
continue
to
ignore
calls
for
real
ethics
reform,
they’re
only
proving
the
critics
right.
And
at
some
point,
even
this
Court
will
have
to
recognize
that
legitimacy
is
—
like
they’ll
soon
say
about
citizenship
—
not
a
birthright.
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter or
Bluesky
if
you’re
interested
in
law,
politics,
and
a
healthy
dose
of
college
sports
news.
Joe
also
serves
as
a
Managing
Director
at
RPN
Executive
Search.