???Norton Resolution Calls on Supreme Court to Adopt Ethics Code???

Norton Resolution Calls on Supreme Court to Adopt Ethics Code

November 23, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will introduce a resolution when Congress reconvenes next week calling on United States Supreme Court Justices to subject themselves to the ethics code that applies to all other federal judges. The Code of Conduct for United States Judges, adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States, an administrative arm of the federal judiciary chaired by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, provides standards for recusals and for avoiding various other ethics matters that arise in the administration of justice. The Code, however, does not apply to Supreme Court Justices, who have unreviewable authority to determine whether conflicts of interest would undermine their ability to hear and decide a case fairly and without the appearance of bias. The resolution aims to further public integrity and bolster confidence in an institution that in recent years has been criticized concerning issues related to conflicts of interest and whose members have been subject to demands for recusal from cases.

"The public trust in Congress is justifiably already at record lows — 8 and 9 percent in some polls — but we cannot afford further erosion of trust in the Supreme Court, the arbiter of the most controversial and weighty issues in our country," Norton said. "There has been an uptick in media coverage of ethics-related matters that could permanently damage the Court. My resolution would help the Court eliminate ethics controversies by encouraging it to adopt the same Code that applies to all other federal judges today. Each branch of government has a part in carrying out the nation's laws, so none is above the law."

Norton, who came to Congress as a tenured law professor at Georgetown University Law School, continues to teach there each year.