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Supreme Court Adopts First Ever Ethics Code; Stopping Corruption in the Court

By: Frankely Ramirez


In the past few years, the new transparency of the corruption of power that the supreme court has had the ability to use has finally fallen into the public eye. With more news sources beginning to reveal bribes given to certain justices, US citizens opening their eyes to the corruption of power, and after congress threatened to impose a formal code of conduct on the court, on November 13th 2023, the Supreme Court formulated themselves a much needed ethics code to keep the judges in check.

https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/11/14/23960027/supreme-court-new-ethics-code-clarence-thomas-unenforceable

Photo by: Alex Wong/Getty Images


This past April, a series of disclosures posted in ProPublica detailed supreme court justice Clarence Thomas’s relationship with billionaire republican donor Harlan Crow. It brought up Thomas’s use of Crows’ private jet and yacht for lavish vacations, as well as Crow buying Thomas’s mother a house, and -if that wasn’t enough- Crow paying for Thomas’s nephews private school tuition. The matter of the fact is that this is only a fraction of the bribes Thomas has received through republican donors due to his title of being a right-leaning Supreme Court justice.

Clarence Thomas has not been the only justice who has received these bribes, as Justice Samuel Alito has also been found taking luxury fishing trips to Alaska with, you guessed it, another billionaire republican donor, Paul Singer, in 2008. Funny enough, a few years later Singer’s hedge fund was presented to the Supreme court in which judge Alito voted in Singer’s favor, resulting in the country of Argentina paying 2.4 billion to his firm.


https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court

Photo by: ProPublica


With the new shed of light towards the supreme courts misuse of power and not disclosing gifts and vacations from wealthy donors, there has been an apparent necessary creation for an ethics code. Though the decision by the supreme court to adopt the ethics code was a step forwards to hold the judges accountable, as was its first of its kind in US history, many are still unclear on how they will uphold the code. Though the lengthy code finally addresses how a judge should act and behave with their title, it doesn’t address who would determine if a judge has violated the code and what would happen if they do.

Nonetheless, the ethics code the Supreme court has adopted has been a major accomplishment in keeping officials we don’t vote for in check, as well as show an example to lower court justices, but improvement in the code and prevention of courts misuse of power is still needed.


Sources:

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-ethics-finances-justices-thomas-alito-08ec6e88a7c29c55c9d3991903ca0db7


https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-harlan-crow-private-school-tuition-scotus


https://www.propublica.org/article/samuel-alito-luxury-fishing-trip-paul-singer-scotus-supreme-court


https://www.propublica.org/article/supreme-court-adopts-ethics-code-scotus-thomas-alito-crow


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/11/supreme-court-republican-justices-shame-power-thomas-alito-roberts


https://www.vox.com/scotus/2023/11/14/23960027/supreme-court-new-ethics-code-clarence-thomas-unenforceable



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