Ethics rules are for lesser beings
Citing “separation of powers,” and all that, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts respectfully declines a request to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to address ethics issues with his court:
In an accompanying statement on ethics practices, all nine justices, under mounting pressure for more stringent reporting requirements at the court, insisted that the existing rules around gifts, travel and other financial disclosures are sufficient.
The chief justice wrote that such appearances before the committee were “exceedingly rare, as one might expect in light of separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence.”
Last week, Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and chairman of the committee, invited the chief justice to appear after revelations of unreported gifts, travel and real estate deals between Justice Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow, a Texas billionaire and Republican donor.
ProPublica opened that can of worms this month:
Justice Thomas had joined Mr. Crow on luxury trips for nearly 20 years, including flights on his private jet to an exclusive all-male retreat in Northern California, a vacation aboard his superyacht in Indonesia and stays at Mr. Crow’s 105-acre lakeside resort in the Adirondack Mountains. None appeared on the financial disclosure forms Justice Thomas filed each year.
Justice Thomas also failed to report a real estate deal with Mr. Crow. In 2014, a real estate company linked to Mr. Crow bought the house where Justice Thomas’s mother lives in Savannah, Georgia, along with two vacant lots along the same street. Mr. Crow paid $133,363 to the justice and his family for the property, according to records filed at Chatham County courthouse dated Oct. 15, 2014. The justice’s mother, Leola Williams, still lives in the home now owned by Mr. Crow.
Durbin delivered his invitation before Politico revealed on April 25 that nine days after receiving his 2017 lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch received an offer for land he co-owned in Granby, Colo. The buyer was the “chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, one of the nation’s biggest law firms with a robust practice before the high court,” Politico reported:
He and his wife closed on the house a month later, paying $1.825 million, according to a deed in the county’s record system. Gorsuch, who held a 20 percent stake, reported making between $250,001 and $500,000 from the sale on his federal disclosure forms.
Gorsuch did not disclose the identity of the purchaser. That box was left blank.
Since then, Greenberg Traurig has been involved in at least 22 cases before or presented to the court, according to a POLITICO review of the court’s docket.
Roberts’ letter is also dated April 25, the same day as Politico’s 04:30 AM EDT report on the Gorsuch land deal. It’s not clear whether he would have read Politico’s reporting before dispatching his letter to Durbin, but one would like to think it might have given him pause to rethink his position if he had. Durbin might have asked about that timing, but now won’t have the chance pending a more compelling invitation from the Senate.
Appearance of impropriety, and all that? Not my concern, says Roberts.
Watchdog Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth responds:
Chief Justice Roberts’ statement is nowhere near an appropriate response to the ethical failures of the current Court.
After years of scandals and lapses, Americans had been seeking some reassurance that nine of the most powerful people in the country understood their responsibility to act above board, avoid corrupting influences and be honest in their dealings and disclosures.
No such comfort comes today.
Roberts here is demonstrating a profound ineptitude to rise to the occasion, and our country is worse for it.
We once worried about abuses of “the imperial presidency.” Those concerns have not abated, and have indeed grown more worrisome in the wake of Sept. 11 and Donald Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election. Now we have to concern ourselves as well with an imperial Supreme Court.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes reacts, “A conservative justice could sit on the front steps of the court with a big BRIBE ME sign, accepting duffel bags of cash and you still wouldn’t have 16 GOP votes to impeach.”