Durbin Questions Witness During Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing On Judicial Ethics Processes At The Judicial Conference Of The U.S.

Hearing

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"When we had a hearing about two weeks ago on issues related to Justice Clarence Thomas and his disclosure standards, it really broke on party lines. And the same thing happened today, which comes as a disappointment to me as much as a surprise. This notion that anyone in public office, at the level of a Senator or Supreme Court Justice, could receive hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of gifts, and travel, and hospitality, and not disclose it, and argue well that was inadvertent is to ignore the obvious. The American public takes a look at that and says what is that judge doing? How can we trust his judgement if one Texas billionaire has such a large part of his life? What's your response to that?

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That goes to the heart of the issue before us. And that is the fact that the Supreme Court of the United States of America has not established a code of conduct or ethical standards that [is] trustworthy… That to me gets to the heart of why we need to enact legislation. This is not a witch hunt, this is to try to rescue the reputation of the Court."

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