A bill that would have established a code of ethics for Supreme Court justices did not pass in the U.S. Senate due to Republican opposition on Wednesday.
The bill, introduced by Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, aimed to set standards of conduct for Supreme Court justices and establish a system for investigating any breaches of these standards. Justices would also be mandated to provide reasons for recusals.
“The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards,” stated Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat and the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and others from the GOP voted against the bill, arguing that it exceeded the legislative branch’s authority and was a politically driven response to the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“I do not believe this bill is about ethics. It is about abortion,” expressed Louisiana Senator John Kennedy on Wednesday.
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The ethics bill was initially introduced in the Senate in 2023 but did not receive bipartisan support.
Later in the same year, the Supreme Court introduced its own informal code of conduct. This code mirrors the one in place for lower court judges but lacks a mechanism for enforcing compliance among justices.
In the meantime, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are drafting their own court ethics legislation, which may include provisions to subject Supreme Court justices to the same $50 gift limit as House members.
