End Citizens United // Let America Vote Action Fund President Tiffany Muller released the following statement praising Senator Sheldon Whitehouse for introducing the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act:
“As we saw last year, the extremist majority on the Supreme Court has turned the Court into a corrupt, partisan body that is eroding Americans’ faith in our judiciary and our democracy. There’s been ethics scandal after ethics scandal, and yet the Justices are the only federal judges without a code of ethics. That’s why Senator Whitehouse’s Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act is so important. It will put in tough ethics standards and ensure Americans have full transparency into the Justices’ ethical and legal issues.”
Senator Whitehouse’s Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act would:
-
Require the Supreme Court to publish on its website all of its ethics rules and procedures, including its code of conduct.
-
Establish an investigative board composed of the chief judges of each circuit to review complaints submitted against Supreme Court justices.
-
Close the loophole in current law that requires complaints against judges to be dismissed once those judges are elevated to the Supreme Court.
-
Clarify that private or sensitive information may be redacted from public explanations of recusal decisions.
-
Clarify that judges who are the subject of motions to recuse can offer their views to recusal review panels, but may not participate on those panels.
###