Supreme Court justices sign code of ethics

The Supreme Court’s nine justices on Monday signed a code of ethics after criticisms about recent reports detailing undisclosed vacations and petitions for book sales. In an unsigned statement that accompanied the code, the justices described most of the rules outlined in the code of ethics as “not new.” The court has long subscribed to certain guidelines derived from history, law, and other judicial principles, according to the document. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Monday criticized the code as lacking any means of enforcement.

Why is the court doing this now? Members of Congress have called for Supreme Court justices to subscribe to a code of ethics after questionable incidents involving Supreme Court justices. In one case, a ProPublica report found that Justice Clarence Thomas had gone on decades’ worth of vacations at the expense of a conservative political donor. The Associated Press later reported that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s staff members had pressured public institutions to buy copies of her books.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report in WORLD Magazine about the push for a Supreme Court code of ethics.