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As Supreme Court Begins its Term Today, Norton Introduces Resolution Urging the Court to Adopt Same Ethics Guidelines as Other Federal Judges

October 5, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C.—To mark the first day of the United States Supreme Court's new term, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a resolution calling on Supreme Court Justices to make themselves subject to the existing and operative ethics guidelines set out in the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges.

"There is no higher court to review the Supreme Court's ethics, and no rules for them either," Norton said. "Yet, occasional ethics questions have been raised. At the very least, the Supreme Court should write its own code or simply join the code it requires of other federal judges."

The full text of the resolution follows.

RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Justices of the United States Supreme Court should make themselves subject to the existing and operative ethics guidelines set out in the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, or promulgate their own.

Whereas section 455 of title 28, United States Code, establishes the circumstances under which any justice, judge, or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself or herself from a case;

Whereas the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act authorizes the Federal judicial circuits to implement complaint, investigative, and review procedures for certain decisions of a judge or magistrate judge of the United States not to recuse himself or herself from a case;

Whereas litigants can seek legal recourse through the United States courts to enforce section 455 of title 28, United States Code, and challenge the disposition of the underlying case, and complainants have administrative procedures under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act against a judge or magistrate judge of the United States, but there are no comparable enforcement mechanisms against the Justices of the United States;

Whereas the Judicial Conference of the United States adopted a Code of Conduct for United States Judges, which uses identical language to the relevant portion of section 455 of title 28, United States Code, that a judge or magistrate judge of the United States must abide by when deciding whether to recuse himself or herself from a case, but the Code does not apply to a Justice of the United States Supreme Court;

Whereas Justices of the United States Supreme Court are not bound by any written code of conduct;

Whereas Justices of the United States Supreme Court each have unreviewable authority to determine whether there is an appearance of bias, conflict of interest, or other ethical justification sufficient for withdrawal from hearing, partaking in deliberations in, or joining in the resolution of, a case or controversy;

Whereas the Federal Judicial Center has concluded that "balancing the duty to decide" with "the duty to disqualify" precludes judges from using recusal as an excuse to shirk their duties by avoiding difficult or unpleasant cases;

Whereas the United States Constitution vests judicial power in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish;

Whereas the separation of powers of the coordinate branches of government, as well as the independence of the Judiciary, or the appearance of independence, may be compromised by extensive Legislative or Executive interference into that branch's functions;

Whereas James Madison argued in Federalist Paper Number 10 that "[n]o man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity"; and

Whereas the United States Supreme Court has acknowledged in Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, and reiterated in Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co., that "[t]he citizen's respect for judgments depends … upon the issuing court's absolute probity[,]" and that "[j]udicial integrity is, in consequence, a state interest of the highest order":

Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the Justices of the United States Supreme Court should make themselves subject to the existing and operative ethics guidelines set out in the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, or promulgate their own ethical code.