Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a Democratic bill that would have forced the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics and create a body to investigate alleged violations of the justices.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois Democrat, and his Democratic colleagues moved to unanimously pass a bill the committee advanced last year that would put new requirements on the high court amid a series of reports critical of some of the GOP-appointed justices, alleging ethics concerns and conflicts of interest.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, blocked the move, saying the bill is about attacking the court, not improving it.
“This is not about improving the court. This is about undermining the court,” said Mr. Graham. “This would be an unconstitutional overreach.”
Democrats, meanwhile, say it is needed because conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. have recently been accused of having skirted ethics rules following a series of news articles first released by ProPublica last year, targeting Justice Thomas and his friendship with a GOP-mega donor with whom he took undisclosed luxury vacations with over the years.
Justice Alito most recently came under fire for the flying of an upside-down American flag and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag at his residences, which critics say are symbols sympathetic with the Jan. 6 rioters. The justice has also been targeted by a liberal activist who secretly recorded his conversations, attempting to get him to reveal bias.
Last year, ProPublica published a series of articles critical of the justices accepting hospitality without disclosing the incidents.
Democratic lawmakers have called for Justices Thomas and Alito to recuse themselves from major disputes before the court this term, which ends at the end of June. Among its final cases, the high court is weighing two major disputes this term over whether former President Donald Trump is immune from charges stemming from his contesting of the 2020 election results and over an obstruction charge facing hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants, including Mr. Trump.
Decisions in those cases are expected by the end of June.
Mr. Durbin argued that the ethics code is needed to improve the reputation of the court.
“This should not be a partisan issue,” he said. “The highest court in the land cannot and should not have the lowest ethical standards.”
