Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, retired federal Judge Nancy Gernter, legal ethics expert Professor Richard Painter, and Stasha Rhodes of United for Democracy join ECU // LAV President Tiffany Muller
End Citizens United (ECU) // Let America Vote (LAV) Action Fund hosted a press call with leading experts to outline the conflicts of interest and corruption that will be at play in the upcoming Supreme Court term that begins next week and call for reforms to the court.
Joining ECU // LAV Action Fund President Tiffany Muller on the call were U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights; Judge Nancy Gertner (Ret.), United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts and Professor at Harvard Law School; Richard W. Painter, Professor at University of Minnesota School of Law and former chief ethics counsel for President George W. Bush; and Stasha Rhodes, Campaign Director of United for Democracy.
“Now that the curtain has been pulled back, we know that the big money donors are using the court to curry favors with special interests, and in return, they’re imposing an extreme agenda that undermines our democracy, strips away our fundamental rights, and infringes on our freedoms,” said Muller. “Right-wing Justices have made a mockery of ethical standards and proven unable to hold themselves to the same standard as all other federal judges—and voters are taking note. The American people deserve a Supreme Court that is immune to pressure from political donors. Congress cannot continue to turn a blind eye to this crisis. They have a responsibility to act.”
“The dark money spector is all over the creation of this court that dark money built. It is the backstory to all of these recent ethics calamities, that are being exposed one after another after another. If you look at each episode, it’s pretty disgraceful,” said Senator Whitehouse. “Once you layer the episodes one on top of each other and you see how commonly the same right-winged billionaires appear and the same front groups that those right-winged billionaires fund also appear and the operative for the right-winged billionaires—the scoundrel Leonard Leo—appears, you begin to see there’s a lot more going on here than just random divergence from the proper ethics code by the Supreme Court Justices.”
“The disclosure rules that apply to the Supreme Court have been violated apparently, the honorarium rules, the limits on teaching income which apply to the Supreme Court have been effectively evaded, and then there are additional rules that ordinary judges are subject to,” said Judge Gertner. “But the issue with the Supreme Court has always been enforcement—I endorse the notion of a special investigative body. Other Supreme Courts around the world in Western Democracies have means of enforcing canons of ethics and there’s no reason ours shouldn’t either.”
“The amicus briefs being filed by shadow organizations with dark money funding have had a substantial influence on the court. Even more of an influence on the court, if justices are on yachts with billionaires funding those same organizations, or on fishing trips funded by the same,” said Professor Painter. “This is a crisis for our Supreme Court and for the reputation of the court or its integrity, and must be addressed.”
“We’re calling on Congress to reign in this extreme Supreme Court and enact robust reforms so it can serve as a bulwark of our democracy, protecting the freedoms of Americans,” said Rhodes. “Congress, not only has the power but also a sworn constitutional duty to bring transparency and accountability to the Supreme Court that has been captured by wealthy and well-connected special interests and to ensure equal justice under the law.”
In August, ECU // LAV, the Alliance for Justice Action Campaign, and Stand Up America commissioned a poll which found that 78% of voters want Congress to take action to impose a code of ethics and create greater accountability for Supreme Court justices. ECU // LAV Action Fund supports several pieces of legislation that would tackle the ethics problems plaguing the court and provide necessary reforms, including: the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act, the DISCLOSE Act and the Supreme Court Tenure Establishment and Retirement Modernization (TERM) Act. These bills will offer more transparency into the justices’ outside activities to identify any potential conflicts of interests and accountability when they run afoul of the law, and create term limits for Supreme Court Justices.
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