Durbin Calls For Supreme Court Ethics Reform On The Senate Floor

Floor Speech

"The highest court in America should not have the lowest standards when it comes to ethics. But for too long that has been the case with the United States Supreme Court. It definitely needs to change. Let's be clear, serving as a federal judge, and especially as a Supreme Court justice, is one of the highest honors in the nation we can confer on an individual. But, above all, it is a public service. Judges and justices are entrusted by the American people to serve the public interest and administer equal justice under the law. That's why taxpayers, and not billionaire donors, fund judicial salaries, courthouses, and operations. Judges have a responsibility to put service to others ahead of their own personal self-interest, but the conduct revealed in ProPublica's reporting tells a much different story… The Supreme Court needs to clean up its act and fast.

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In the past, Congress has stepped up to strengthen court ethics. Just last year we passed the bipartisan Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act, which applies the STOCK Act reporting and disclosure requirements to federal judges and justices. But the Supreme Court doesn't need to wait on Congress to clean up its act. The justices could take action today if they wanted to. And if the Court fails to act, Congress must. In the coming days, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the need to restore public confidence in the highest court of our land, the Supreme Court.

Some on the Republican side may claim that this focus on ethics is just a reaction to decisions being handed down by the right-wing activist majority of the Supreme Court. To them, I say, check the record. I've been at this pursuit for more than ten years. I led a letter joined by Democratic colleagues to the Chief Justice 11 years ago urging him to adopt a code of conduct. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing in 2011 with Justices Scalia and Breyer. During that hearing, I asked them about Supreme Court ethics, which was in the news because of troubling reports even then of gifts being made by Mr. Harlan Crow. Unfortunately, Chief Justice Roberts rejected our call to act ten years ago. And it appears that Harlan Crow took that as a sign that he should ante up and increase his largesse.

Is it any wonder that we face a crisis of public confidence in the Supreme Court? Our Constitution established a system of checks and balances between the branches of government and it established a system in which no person is above the law. There are few positions in our federal government more elevated than Supreme Court justices. But justices are public servants and they must conduct themselves in that manner. Our job on the Senate Judiciary Committee and in the Senate is to make certain that they do. Nothing less."

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