{"id":107637,"date":"2025-02-04T10:14:37","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T18:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/04\/aba-calls-for-supreme-court-ethics-rule-while-clarence-thomas-laughs-all-the-way-to-the-bank\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T10:14:37","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T18:14:37","slug":"aba-calls-for-supreme-court-ethics-rule-while-clarence-thomas-laughs-all-the-way-to-the-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/04\/aba-calls-for-supreme-court-ethics-rule-while-clarence-thomas-laughs-all-the-way-to-the-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"ABA Calls For Supreme Court Ethics Rule While Clarence Thomas Laughs All The Way To The Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photographer: Samuel Corum\/Bloomberg)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Is it a sign of a healthy judiciary when the country\u2019s largest professional association of lawyers has to formally vote on whether Supreme Court justices should follow basic ethical rules? Asking for an American in the year 2025.<\/p>\n

Earlier today, the American Bar Association unanimously adopted a resolution urging the justices to implement a binding and enforceable ethics code \u2014 one that, at minimum, meets the standards already required of lower federal judges.<\/p>\n

Chief Justice Roberts will not do a damn thing. That\u2019s not fair. He might characterize it as a dangerous attack on the federal courts<\/a><\/em> to suggest justices shouldn\u2019t be stuffing their pockets with billionaire money like they\u2019re in the money booth from Concentration<\/a>, Or he might ignore it and write another lengthy diatribe about typewriters<\/a>. In either event, he won\u2019t do anything to actually address the ethical quagmire.<\/p>\n

The resolution, proposed by the New York City Bar Association and co-sponsored by the King County Bar Association of Washington, is hardly radical. As City Bar President Muhammad U. Faridi put it, ensuring the Supreme Court adheres to the \u201chighest ethical standards\u201d is about protecting public confidence in the Court. But Roberts compared people being mean to the Court on Twitter to judges having crosses burned in their yards in the 60s so he\u2019s got to be cooking up quite the disingenuous analogy for this one.<\/p>\n

The ethics debate is not partisan except to the extent one side of the ideological aisle is disproportionately caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Clarence Thomas has been enjoying undisclosed luxury vacations (and then some<\/a>), Sam Alito\u2019s moonlighting as an aristocrat (literally<\/a>), and Chief Justice John Roberts defiantly insists that any attempt to hold the justices to an ethical standard amounts to a constitutional crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In late 2023, the Supreme Court tried to defuse mounting criticism by releasing a \u201cCode of Conduct\u201d<\/a> with no enforcement mechanism, no penalties for violations, and no meaningful changes to how the justices operate. It turned upside down faster than an American flag at the Alito home.<\/p>\n

The idea that the most powerful court in the country should be held to the same standard as a district court judge shouldn\u2019t be controversial. And yet, here we are, still having to talk about it.<\/p>\n

Public trust in the Supreme Court is already in freefall. If the justices continue to ignore calls for real ethics reform, they\u2019re only proving the critics right. And at some point, even this Court will have to recognize that legitimacy is \u2014 like they\u2019ll soon say about citizenship \u2014 not a birthright.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post ABA Calls For Supreme Court Ethics Rule While Clarence Thomas Laughs All The Way To The Bank<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photographer: Samuel Corum\/Bloomberg)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Is it a sign of a healthy judiciary when the country\u2019s largest professional association of lawyers has to formally vote on whether Supreme Court justices should follow basic ethical rules? Asking for an American in the year 2025.<\/p>\n

Earlier today, the American Bar Association unanimously adopted a resolution urging the justices to implement a binding and enforceable ethics code \u2014 one that, at minimum, meets the standards already required of lower federal judges.<\/p>\n

Chief Justice Roberts will not do a damn thing. That\u2019s not fair. He might characterize it as a dangerous attack on the federal courts<\/a><\/em> to suggest justices shouldn\u2019t be stuffing their pockets with billionaire money like they\u2019re in the money booth from Concentration<\/a>, Or he might ignore it and write another lengthy diatribe about typewriters<\/a>. In either event, he won\u2019t do anything to actually address the ethical quagmire.<\/p>\n

The resolution, proposed by the New York City Bar Association and co-sponsored by the King County Bar Association of Washington, is hardly radical. As City Bar President Muhammad U. Faridi put it, ensuring the Supreme Court adheres to the \u201chighest ethical standards\u201d is about protecting public confidence in the Court. But Roberts compared people being mean to the Court on Twitter to judges having crosses burned in their yards in the 60s so he\u2019s got to be cooking up quite the disingenuous analogy for this one.<\/p>\n

The ethics debate is not partisan except to the extent one side of the ideological aisle is disproportionately caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Clarence Thomas has been enjoying undisclosed luxury vacations (and then some<\/a>), Sam Alito\u2019s moonlighting as an aristocrat (literally<\/a>), and Chief Justice John Roberts defiantly insists that any attempt to hold the justices to an ethical standard amounts to a constitutional crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In late 2023, the Supreme Court tried to defuse mounting criticism by releasing a \u201cCode of Conduct\u201d<\/a> with no enforcement mechanism, no penalties for violations, and no meaningful changes to how the justices operate. It turned upside down faster than an American flag at the Alito home.<\/p>\n

The idea that the most powerful court in the country should be held to the same standard as a district court judge shouldn\u2019t be controversial. And yet, here we are, still having to talk about it.<\/p>\n

Public trust in the Supreme Court is already in freefall. If the justices continue to ignore calls for real ethics reform, they\u2019re only proving the critics right. And at some point, even this Court will have to recognize that legitimacy is \u2014 like they\u2019ll soon say about citizenship \u2014 not a birthright.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photographer: Samuel Corum\/Bloomberg) Is it a sign of a healthy judiciary when the country\u2019s largest professional association of lawyers has to formally vote on whether Supreme Court justices should follow basic ethical rules? Asking for an American in the year 2025. Earlier today, the American Bar Association unanimously adopted a resolution urging the justices to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":107581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Headshot-300x200-cYBOKS.jpeg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}