Supreme Court Ethics Act

Supreme Court Ethics Act

This bill establishes a new statutory requirement for the Judicial Conference of the United States to issue a judicial code of conduct for judges and justices of U.S. courts, including Justices of the Supreme Court. Currently, the Judicial Conference issues a code of conduct for judges of U.S. courts (but not for Justices of the Supreme Court).

To enforce the code of conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court, the bill requires the Supreme Court to appoint an ethics investigations counsel. The ethics investigations counsel must

• adopt rules to enforce the code of conduct, including a process to receive public complaints of potential violations;
• investigate complaints; and
• issue an annual public report describing the complaints and the steps taken to address the complaints.

Finally, the bill requires a Justice of the Supreme Court to publicly disclose the reasons for disqualifying himself or herself in a proceeding or the reasons for denying a motion to disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding.