Durbin announces vote on Supreme Court ethics bill

Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin is done waiting patiently for the Supreme Court to change its ethics standards.

The Illinois Democrat announced Wednesday that his panel will vote on ethics legislation for the high court in July, after he and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) have spent months probing the matter. Durbin’s statement was prompted by a ProPublica report that Justice Samuel Alito took an expensive fishing trip with prominent GOP donor Paul Singer, a story that followed another ProPublica investigation into Justice Clarence Thomas accepting luxury trips from billionaire Harlan Crow. Alito took part in a court decision that involved Singer’s business.

Durbin said the Supreme Court is in the middle of an “ethical crisis of its own making” and added that Congress will act if Chief Justice John Roberts does not address the issue on his own. The chief justice has responded to Durbin’s queries with a “Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices,” which was signed by all nine justices.

“The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards. But for too long that has been the case with the United States Supreme Court. That needs to change. That’s why when the Senate returns after the July 4th recess, the Senate Judiciary Committee will mark up Supreme Court ethics legislation,” Durbin and Whitehouse said in a statement.

The move by Durbin, the panel’s chair, and Whitehouse, a pugnacious liberal fighter on court issues, escalates the conflict between a Democratic Senate and the conservative court majority. It’s a fight that’s been brewing since the GOP blocked Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court in 2016, and it is accelerating due to ProPublica’s reporting on the justices.

Republicans have mostly defended the Supreme Court justice, since they have not done anything technically illegal. Democrats in the upper chamber would need at least nine Republicans to back any court ethics legislation in order to overcome a filibuster, though a bill could advance through the Judiciary Committee with a simple majority.

The goal with any legislation, Democrats say, is to apply the same standards to the Supreme Court that govern lower courts. Whitehouse has a bill to increase disclosure requirements and allow complaints to be filed against justices.

Democrats have tried to prod Roberts to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee this year to discuss the matter, but Roberts declined. Durbin also held a hearing about ethics reform in May. The panel chair has not moved to subpoena Roberts, but his announcement Wednesday is a clear move to force some action by the chief justice.