US: Senate Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on Supreme Court Ethics

The Democratic-led US Senate Judiciary Committee has called for a hearing on ethics standards in the Supreme Court. This follows growing concern in Washington in recent reports showing how the justices failed to disclose gifts and real-estate sales that may prompt conflicts of interest.

The committee’s chair Dick Durbin said he called for a hearing on Tuesday as the Supreme Court has repeatedly refused to address and resolve the issues surrounding disclosures of gifts and luxury trips. Durbin also said the Supreme Court’s current self-oversight is falling short.

Some critics, like the panel’s ranking Republican chair Lindsey Graham, however, criticized Durbin and accused him of overstepping bounds and suggesting that such a hearing needed to be done due to the court leaning toward the right in recent years. The current Supreme Court has a conservative supermajority of six to three liberal justices.

“It is critical to our democracy that the American people have confidence that judges cannot be bought or influenced and that they are serving the public interest, not their own personal interest,” said Durbin.

The hearing was launched following reports that conservative Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose going on luxury trips gifted to him by a GOP megadonor Harlan Crow. Thomas had also failed to disclose a real estate purchase from him by Crow. Thomas has described the lack of disclosure as a mere misunderstanding.

Following reports about Thomas, another report by Politico found that another conservative Justice, Neil Gorsuch failed to disclose that a property he partially owned in Colorado was sold to a major executive of a law firm that regularly argues in cases before the high court.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have also called on President Joe Biden to accept their party’s debt ceiling package or make a counter-offer as lawmakers on both sides argue over the debt ceiling. Leaders of both parties have remained firm in their stances regarding the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling.

Senate Republicans argue that Biden’s fellow Democrats take seriously the offer made by GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s legislation that passed the Republican-controlled House last week. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Tuesday that the caucus was preparing a possible way to work around GOP opposition, but the tactic may only work if the Senate passed its own legislation.