Chief Justice Roberts Asked to Testify to Senate on Supreme Court Ethics

Laura Litvan
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin asked Chief Justice John Roberts to testify on Supreme Court ethics reform, following a report that Justice Clarence Thomas accepted unreported luxury travel from a Republican billionaire.

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In a letter to Roberts, Durbin asked him to appear before the committee or choose another justice to testify in his place on May 2, arguing that there’s “ample precedent” for sitting Supreme Court justices to appear before Congress, including to testify about ethics.

Roberts has not publicly addressed the issue of Court ethics since a 2011 Supreme Court report when he said “the court has had no reason to adopt the Code of Conduct as its definitive source of ethical guidance.”

But in his request, Durbin insists “the status quo is no longer tenable.”

“These problems were already apparent back in 2011, and the Court’s decade-long failure to address them has contributed to a crisis of public confidence,” Durbin said in the letter.

Durbin’s move is a significant step up in the intensifying pressure on Roberts to take action on an ethics code for the high court.

Without mentioning Thomas by name, Durbin said there has been “a steady stream of revelations” on ethics issues involving some justices that fall short of what’s expected under a code of ethics applied to all other federal judges.

“The time has come for a new public conversation on ways to restore confidence in the Court’s ethical standards,” Durbin wrote. “I invite you to join it, and I look forward to your response.”

A spokesman for Roberts didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the invitation.

The nonprofit news organization ProPublica recently reported that Thomas accepted but never disclosed over two decades luxury trips paid for by Harlan Crow, a Texas billionaire and longtime GOP donor, and that Thomas also didn’t report that he and relatives sold three Georgia properties to Crow in 2014, including his mother’s home.

Thomas defended himself after the initial report about the trips, saying he’d been advised that he didn’t have to disclose hospitality from close personal friends who didn’t have any business before the court. He also said he intends in the future to follow recent changes made to gift-reporting guidelines issued by the Judicial Conference, which makes policy for the federal judiciary, which narrow an exemption for “personal hospitality.”

Durbin told reporters the letter will be presented to Roberts on Thursday afternoon and that he’d have the hearing anyway if Roberts doesn’t come.

There’s no discussion about issuing a subpoena for Roberts or any other justice at this time, he said. Also, Senator Dianne Feinstein’s health-induced absence means Democrats don’t have the committee majority needed to issue a subpoena, Durbin added.

A complaint by two congressional Democrats regarding possible ethics violations by Thomas has been forwarded to the Judicial Conference, which enforces financial disclosure rules.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia have asked the conference to examine whether the lack of reporting by Thomas in his annual financial disclosure statements violates the Ethics in Government Act, which applies to federal officials including Supreme Court justices. They’ve asked the conference to refer the matter to the Justice Department if they make a finding that he violated the law.

--With assistance from Zach C. Cohen.

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