![]() ![]() “This problem could have been resolved then,” Durbin wrote this week. The push to make the Judicial Conference Code of Conduct a requirement, instead of just guidance, ultimately didn't go anywhere. That previous demand came in 2011, when justices Stephen Breyer and Antonin Scalia were called to testify before a Senate panel amid growing ethical concerns regarding the Supreme Court - specifically about Scalia, Samuel Alito, and Thomas' appearances at political events, Thomas's wife's conservative activism, and Thomas' connections to Crow. In a letter to Roberts, the Illinois Democrat urged the chief justice to immediately open an investigation and “take all needed action to prevent further misconduct,” noting that he and other committee members had called on him to adopt Code of Conduct more than a decade ago, but were rebuffed. But their expressions of indignation have also underscored the limits of their ability to check the court’s awesome power: For all the brazenness of Thomas’s impropriety, is there any expectation that he’ll have to seriously answer for anything? That he’ll actually be held accountable? “The Court faces a crisis of public confidence,” Durbin wrote to Roberts, “that must be addressed.”īut the current system has not only eroded confidence in the court itself it has made it hard to imagine that the concerns about the court’s legitimacy can actually be addressed.ĭemocrats have been rightly outraged by the latest revelations about Thomas, who hadn't reported any of the gifts from Crow (Thomas said he didn't think he needed to since Crow was such a close friend). ![]() ![]() And Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin on Monday called on Chief Justice John Roberts to investigate, while announcing an upcoming hearing on the “need to restore confidence” in the Supreme Court’s integrity. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for him to be impeached. In the aftermath of ProPublica’s Clarence Thomas report last week, revealing that the Supreme Court justice has for decades secretly accepted lavish gifts and luxury vacations from conservative billionaire Harlan Crow, several Democrats called on the justice to resign. ![]()
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