Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell defended the “high ethical standards” already observed by the Supreme Court in the face of a report that Justice Clarence Thomas took undisclosed luxury trips paid for by a prominent GOP donor.
(Bloomberg) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell defended the “high ethical standards” already observed by the Supreme Court in the face of a report that Justice Clarence Thomas took undisclosed luxury trips paid for by a prominent GOP donor.
Speaking on the Senate floor, the Kentucky Republican indicated that a three-page statement signed by all nine justices vowing to follow “foundational ethics principles and practices” — but suggesting no need for a formal code of conduct sought by Democrats — is adequate. The statement was attached to a Tuesday letter from Chief Justice John Roberts refusing to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee on court ethics.
“Unlike the activists and elected Democrats trying to tear them down, the justices have proven their sobriety and their judicial temperament over their long and distinguished careers,” McConnell said.
McConnell also lambasted what he called “never-ending attempts to smear and defame justices appointed by Republican presidents going back years and decades.” His comments point further to a likely lack of any action in Congress to impose an ethics code, since some GOP support would be needed to move legislation through the Senate.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin on Tuesday pushed back on the document, saying he was “surprised that the chief justice’s recounting of existing legal standards of ethics suggests current law is adequate and ignores the obvious.”
Durbin’s request for Roberts to testify came in response to a ProPublica report that Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose luxury trips over two decades that were paid for by Harlan Crow, a Texas real estate developer who has donated millions to conservative causes. In a second story, ProPublica reported that Crow bought three Georgia properties, including Thomas’s boyhood home, from the justice and relatives.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that despite Thomas’s statement that Crow “did not have business before the court,” there was a 2005 appeal that was rejected by the court involving one of the Crow family businesses.
Meanwhile, Politico on Tuesday reported that Justice Neil Gorsuch, just days after his confirmation, sold a Colorado property he owned with two other individuals to the chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, one of the nation’s biggest law first with business before the high court. Gorsuch reported the purchase but not the purchaser in his 2017 financial disclosure form. The justice, through a spokesperson, declined to comment.
McConnell defended both Thomas and Gorsuch, saying they have been “particularly subjected to a carousel of character assassination.”
Durbin said Democrats on his committee are considering “next steps” toward drafting a code of ethics in Congress, because it appears unlikely that Roberts will push one for the court. On Wednesday, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Independent Senator Angus King of Maine introduced a bipartisan bill that would require the high court to adopt one within a year and to appoint an official to review potential conflicts of interest and public complaints.
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