The Senate Judiciary Committee has invited Supreme Court Justice John Roberts to testify at a hearing about the court’s ethics issues on May 2.
The Senate Judiciary Committee tweeted:
BREAKING: @SenatorDurbin officially invites Chief Justice Roberts to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on May 2.
This follows an unacceptable stream of revelations of Justices falling short of ethical standards expected by the American people.— Senate Judiciary Committee (@JudiciaryDems) April 20, 2023
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The Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to Chief Justice John Roberts and warned him that he had to clean up the SCOTUS ethics problems, a.k.a. Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, and Coney Barrett, or the Senate would get involved.
Nothing has happened at the Supreme Court, so the hearing is a first step toward the Senate taking action.
Given what Clarence Thomas has been up to, the Supreme Court urgently needs ethics rules and an independent panel to conduct oversight. Passing ethics rules for SCOTUS, but allowing the current group of apparently corrupt conservative justices to police themselves is a terrible idea.
Getting a Supreme Court ethics bill through the Senate could be an impossible challenge, but something must be attempted, and a series of hearing on the ethics problems will serve to bring attention and increase pressure on Roberts to act.
The hearing isn’t going to solve the problem, but it is a start. Chief Justice Roberts will certainly decline to testify, and if he refuses to show up and answer questions, it will make the need for ethics reform at the Supreme Court even more urgent.