Tell our Members of Congress: Pass legislation to curb Supreme Court corruption

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Call Script

My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am a member of Indivisible SF.

To your Representative:

I’m calling to support the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act of 2023. While I realize it won’t be passed by this House due to the MAGA Republicans, I will be looking forward to a binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court in the 119th Congress, when Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is Speaker.

Senators Feinstein and Padilla:

I’m calling to thank you for supporting the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act of 2023. While MAGA Republicans are likely to block its passage, I think it is long past time for Supreme Court Justices to adopt and comply with a binding code of ethics.

Background

Chief Justice John Roberts famously described the proper role of a judge as “to call balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat.” However, as the advocacy group Demand Justice reminds us on their website, Balls and Strikes, interpreting the law is an inherently political act with real-world consequences.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been sounding the alarm about SCOTUS’ partisan decisions for a long time. “It turns out that Republican appointees to the Supreme Court have, with remarkable consistency, delivered rulings that advantage the big corporate and special interests that are, in turn, the political lifeblood of the Republican Party. Several of these decisions have been particularly flagrant and notorious: Citizens United v. FEC, Shelby County v. Holder, and Janus v. AFSCME. But there are many. Under Chief Justice Roberts’ tenure through the end of October Term 2017–2018, Republican appointees have delivered partisan rulings not three or four times, not even a dozen or two dozen times, but 73 times,” he writes in a 2019 issue brief for the American Constitution Society.

His Democratic colleagues have preferred to downplay those concerns, under the guise of respecting the separation of powers in our Constitution. They have preferred not to discuss the work of the judicial branch, nor to make it a campaign issue, which Democratic corporate donors may have preferred. Republicans have chastised Democrats loudly for choosing judicial nominees they considered too liberal, so they bent over backward to choose moderates like Merrick Garland. Duplicitous Republicans, while shouting about supposed liberal “judicial activism,” have been far less timid about controlling and wielding the judicial branch. Republican donors have poured billions of dollars into those efforts, led by Leonard Leo and The Federalist Society.

We were astonished by the series of gifts— some declared, some undeclared—that Justice Thomas had received from Harlan Crow. Then we learned that Justice Gorsuch sold property of his to a lawyer at a famous firm that had business before the Court. Then we remembered Justice Kavanaugh having gotten his debt mysteriously paid off soon after he joined the Court. We also got new information on how shoddy the investigation into Justice Kavanaugh’s ethics had been. We were also reminded that famous Justice Antonin Scalia had taken dozens of hunting trips sponsored by the Federalist Society, but he remained on SCOTUS until he died. There are still calls for Justice Thomas’s resignation, kept on the front burner by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. After all, Justice Abe Fortas had to resign over a $20,000 gift (but he was a Democratic appointee). Republicans bark about Democrats raising these ethical concerns for purely political reasons, although we know, as Elie Mystal said, “If Justice Sotomayor got a tube of lipstick from Revlon, they’d be screaming for her resignation.”

While MAGA Republicans are likely to block the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act of 2023, we think it is long past time for Supreme Court justices to comply with a binding code of ethics. Oversight would come in the form of review by appeals court judges. It would also impose more stringent recusal obligations for Supreme Court justices, require parties and amici before the Court and those involved in the confirmation process to disclose sources of funding; and subject justices to the same gift and travel disclosures as members of Congress.

Article III of the Constitution, which establishes the Judicial Branch, gives Congress significant discretion to determine the funding, structure, and function of the federal judiciary. Congress has the Constitutional power to impose on SCOTUS the same ethics rules that govern all other federal judges. It is long past time for Democrats in Congress to use their full Constitutional power to do that, rather than leaving SCOTUS open to Republican corruption.