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Federal court officials announced that ethics lawsuits filed separately by members of Congress and advocacy groups against Judges Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson will not be referred to the Justice Department.
The U.S. Judicial Conference announced that Thomas had agreed to follow updated guidelines regarding free personal travel and a list of gifts from friends, following past reports of undisclosed entertainment.
Ms. Jackson amended her financial disclosures after complaints about her husband’s consulting income as a physician.
Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), along with U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), said Haaland, his billionaire friend, was It called for an investigation by the judiciary itself into undisclosed hospitality provided to Mr. Thomas. Crow. ProPublica reported several instances of private travel and lodging over the years.
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Justice Robert Conrad, who heads the Judicial Conference’s policy-making body, said in a letter to lawmakers that Thomas had submitted an amended financial disclosure that “addresses several of the issues identified in the letter.” .
Furthermore, Conrad said it is unclear whether the judicial authorities themselves can refer a sitting Supreme Court justice for criminal charges.
“Congress should at least make such a directive clear, since the Judicial Conference does not have oversight over the Supreme Court, and any effort to give it such authority would raise serious constitutional problems. “However, no such explicit directive appears in this article,” Conrad said.
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View of the US Supreme Court at sunset. (Aaron Schwartz/SIPA USA)
Conrad noted that the White House and Wyden had separately asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate then-former President Donald Trump. Garland has not yet responded to that request.
The White House criticized the Judicial Council’s decision in a statement.
“The judiciary is, by all accounts, shirking its statutory obligation to hold Supreme Court justices accountable for their ethics violations,” the White House said.
The complaint against Jackson came from Citizens for Reclaiming America, led by Russ Vought, who was nominated by President-elect Trump to head the Office of Management and Budget.
The court adopted its first ethics code last year after questions over ethics, including unreported personal travel by some justices.
United States Supreme Court (front row left and right) Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, (back row left and right) Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson pose for official portraits in the East on October 7, 2022 at the Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC. Conference room. The Supreme Court began its new term in September with the formal addition of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the bench. ((Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images))
But compliance is up to each of the nine justices, raising concerns that the court is not taking its own ethical enforcement standards seriously.
A two-year investigation by Senate Democrats released last week found additional luxury travel by Judge Thomas in 2021 was not reported on his annual financial disclosure forms.
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Fix the Court, a group that advocates for greater judicial transparency, urged Congress to act.
“The conference’s letter further emphasizes the need for Congress to create a new, transparent mechanism for investigating judges for ethics violations. Because we don’t want to act on a method,” said Executive Director Gabe Ross.
Shannon Bream currently anchors FOX News Sunday. She joined the network in 2007 as a Washington, D.C.-based correspondent covering the Supreme Court.
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