Republican senators speaking at the hearing on Tuesday said that while they are concerned about Supreme Court ethics, the current efforts by the Democratic-led Senate to force the court to abide by an ethics code is "selective outrage" to destroy a conservative court. And, they cited a variety of their exceptions to the rules followed by lower court judges. Democrats argued in favor of ethical guidelines that the Supreme Court must follow while Republicans countered that the current push to enforce ethics is because liberals aren't pleased with the recent decisions of a conservative leaning Supreme Court.Ībsent from Tuesday's hearing are the central players in the current drama over high court ethics - no member of the court testified.Ĭhief Justice John Roberts last week declined the committee's invitation to testify, citing "separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving Judicial independence." Rather, he released a short letter to that effect, accompanied by a joint statement from all nine current justices reaffirming, apparently for the first time publicly, their voluntary adherence to the code of conduct that applies to lower federal court judges.Īt the same time, however, the nine essentially insisted that because they are the Supreme Court, and thus different from other courts, they must remain ultimately independent from congressional oversight or mandatory rules. Bush administration, the lawmakers used their questioning to reinforce their own arguments. While members heard testimony from a variety of witnesses ranging from judicial ethics experts to a former attorney general in the George W. Bitter partisan debates between Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary panel fueled a hearing on Supreme Court ethics Tuesday.
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