Senate Democrats blast Supreme Court's 'ethical crisis' as investigation concludes

WASHINGTON — A lengthy investigation by Senate Democrats into alleged ethical lapses by Supreme Court justices has ended with the release of a report Saturday criticizing the judiciary and calling for legislative reforms that incoming Republican leadership opposes.

Republicans are set to take control of the Senate in January, meaning the report is likely the final word on the issue for a while.

“The Supreme Court has mired itself in an ethical crisis of its own making by failing to address justices’ ethical misconduct for decades,” the report says.

The 95-page document details the previously reported alleged transgressions, including the undisclosed trips taken by Justice Clarence Thomas with his friend, billionaire Harlan Crow. It was ProPublica’s reporting of the trips starting in April 2023 that triggered the investigation.

The renewed attention on the court’s ethics did ultimately lead the justices to adopt a new ethics code in November 2023, but it was immediately criticized for being insufficient, mostly because it has no enforcement mechanism.

In the report, Democrats bemoaned the fact that Chief Justice John Roberts declined to speak to the Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

They also called for Congress to pass a law to put in place a more rigorous code that would allow for ethics complaints to be reviewed by an independent panel.

This year, the bill was approved by the Judiciary Committee on party lines, but Republicans blocked a final vote on the Senate floor.

“An enforceable code of conduct for the Supreme Court is essential in light of the court’s failure to police itself,” the report says.

In other findings, the report found justices are lax in identifying conflicts of interest that should trigger recusal. It also criticizes Thomas for failing to recuse from cases concerning the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters because of the role of his wife, Ginni Thomas, in supporting then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

The report takes aim at the judiciary’s administrative arm too, saying that the Judicial Conference has “failed to enforce financial disclosure regulations.”

Mark Paoletta, a conservative ally of Thomas, pushed back at the investigation of the justices in a lengthy post on X ahead of the report’s release.

“This entire investigation was never about ‘ethics’ but about trying to undermine the Supreme Court because the Court is no longer acting like a super legislature handing down opinions implementing the Democrats’ political agenda,” he wrote.