Although I agree with this bill, the NYT calling it “strict new ethics rules” is a bit much. Reading the requirements in the bill itself, it struck me as legislating that SCOTUS justices do the bare ethical minimum required of most every other judge - in other words, it’s the type of bill that shows up when an organization demonstrates that it is incapable of self-policing.
What’s shocking is 100% opposition by Republicans to a bill requiring a Justice to recuse if a close family member receives a large gift from a litigant - literally, that’s in the bill.
How is this controversial? Senator Graham says why - requiring the court to act ethically will “destroy” the court. He’s saying, we don’t care if justices are ethical so long as they’re partisan.
Congress needs to step up here.
It might help to understand that the GOP/Conservatives have no interest in being morally consistent. The only metric they have is our guys good, yours bad. Consistency doesn’t matter, being a team player does, and the goal is unrestricted power. Once they have that they don’t have to listen to anyone’s criticisms. Stop trying to reason in response to them.
Thank you.