Congress, the executive branch, all lower federal courts, and every state supreme court have ethics guardrails and a mechanism for enforcing ethics rules

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Peter Welch, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and U.S. Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA-04) in reintroducing the bicameral Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act, legislation to require Supreme Court justices to adopt a binding code of conduct and create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code of conduct and other laws. The SCERT Act would improve disclosure and transparency when a justice has a connection to a party or amicus before the Court, end the practice of justices ruling on their own conflicts of interests, and require justices to explain their recusal decisions to the public. 

“Vermonters I talk with don’t understand why Supreme Court justices are allowed to accept lavish private airplane travel and yacht vacations from billionaires. It’s no surprise that these ethical problems have shattered public trust in our nation’s most powerful court,” said Senator Welch. “This ethics legislation is unfortunately necessary, because the Supreme Court will not enact commonsense measures to ensure transparency. This is a long-overdue step, and one my Republican colleagues should support.” 

“Supreme Court justices have repeatedly gotten caught red-handed receiving extravagant gifts from politically active billionaires and refusing to report the gifts as required by law. It’s not even clear proper taxes were paid. Despite these ethical problems, the Court does not allow basic fact-finding regarding the justices’ behavior, or any neutral process to resolve ethics questions,” said Senator Whitehouse. “This Court has repeatedly proven that it cannot police itself, so it’s time for fair and transparent guardrails, with clear procedures for receiving, investigating, and resolving ethics complaints. With Trump’s persistent improper pressure on the judiciary, it’s now urgent to get this right.” 

“A judiciary whose members are accountable for their conduct, that is transparent to its citizens, and that is free from bias or partiality is truly independent,” said Representative Johnson. “Americans need to feel confident that when serious concerns arise, the judiciary can diligently investigate and correct judicial misconduct, no matter who might be implicated. That is a judiciary whose judgements will be accepted, observed, and respected. An independent judiciary is crucial to our democracy now more than ever.” 

In the last two years, reporting from ProPublica and the New York Times has exposed Justice Clarence Thomas’s long record of accepting undisclosed gifts from politically active right-wing billionaires. Further reporting from ProPublica found that Justice Samuel Alito accepted private jet travel to an all-expenses-paid vacation from a hedge fund billionaire who had contributed over $80 million to Republican political organizations and had business before the Court. Justice Alito’s luxury vacation was organized by Leonard Leo, the engineer of the current right-wing Supreme Court supermajority at the behest of a cadre of right-wing billionaires and special interests. 

The SCERT Act would address these ethical shortfalls and help restore Americans’ faith in the judicial branch. The bill would: 

Develop a Process for Enforcement of a Code of Conduct 

• Require the Supreme Court to adopt a code of conduct within 180 days; 
• Require the Supreme Court to publish its code of conduct and any other rules or procedures related to ethics, financial disclosure, and judicial misconduct; 
• Require the Supreme Court to create a transparent process for the public to submit ethics complaints against the justices, and for a random panel of chief judges from the lower courts to investigate and make recommendations based on those complaints; 
• Require safeguards modeled on the lower courts’ complaints process to deter and punish frivolous ethics complaints. 

Improve Gift Rules and Transparency 

• Require the Supreme Court to adopt rules requiring disclosure of gifts, travel, and income received by justices and law clerks that are at least as rigorous as the House and Senate disclosure rules; 
• Require the rules for what gifts justices can accept to be as restrictive as Congress’s; 
• Require greater disclosure of amicus curiae funding; 
• Require parties and amici curiae before the Supreme Court to disclose any recent gifts, travel, or reimbursements they’ve given to a justice; 
• Require parties and amici curiae before the Supreme Court to disclose any lobbying or money they spent promoting a justice’s confirmation to the Court. 

Strengthen Recusal Requirements 

• Create new recusal requirements governing gifts, income, or reimbursements given to judges; 
• Create new recusal requirements governing a party’s lobbying or spending money to campaign for a judge’s confirmation; 
• Ensure that requests for a judge to recuse are reviewed by a panel of randomly selected, impartial judges, or by the rest of the justices at the Supreme Court; 
• Require written notification and explanations of recusal decisions; 
• Require the judiciary to develop rules explaining when a judge’s connection to an amicus curiae brief might require recusal; and 
• Require the Federal Judicial Center to study and report to Congress every two years on the extent to which the judiciary is complying with recusal requirements. 

Late last year, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts released a report that found every state supreme court (or equivalent high court) subjects its judges or justices to ethics reviews—similar to the processes that apply to all federal judges except the Supreme Court under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act. The SCERT Act would eliminate this loophole by establishing an ethics review process for the Supreme Court. 

In addition to Senators Welch and Whitehouse, the legislation is cosponsored by Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), John Fetterman (D-Pa.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).  

The Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act is endorsed by Accountable.US/Accountable.NOW, Common Cause, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Citizens United/Let America Vote, Demand Justice, Fix the Court, New York City Bar Association, People’s Parity Project, League of Conservation Voters, Court Accountability Action, Free Law Project, American Governance Institute, Lawyers for Good Government, Public Citizen, and Stand Up America.  

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Welch continues to push for transparency and ethics reform at the U.S. Supreme Court. Last year, Senator Welch led his colleagues in introducing the High Court Gift Ban Act, bicameral legislation that would ban Supreme Court Justices from receiving gifts valued at over $50 and help strengthen ethical standards of the Supreme Court. In October 2011, Senator Welch joined 45 of his then-House colleagues in sending a letter to the House Judiciary Committee urging the investigation of outstanding ethical questions surrounding the court. 

Read and download the full text of the SCERT Act. 

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