Illinois Senator Dick Durbin has issued a statement criticizing Justice Samuel Alito’s refusal to recuse himself in a pending case.
A lawyer in a case coming up for consideration in front of the court recently interviewed Alito for the Wall Street Journal, and in the article allowed the justice to air grievances against those who question conflicts of interest in cases he decides. Alito stated he could not see a reason to recuse himself, in spite of the unusual access he gave to the lawyer while the case was already pending.
According to Durbin:
“The Court is in a crisis of its own making, and Justice Alito and the rest of the Court should be doing everything in their power to regain public trust, not the opposite. This episode is further proof that Chief Justice Robert’s failure to act remains untenable, and Congress needs to pass the SCERT Act to create an enforceable code of conduct. Supreme Court Justices should be held to the highest ethical standards, not the lowest.”
The SCERT Act is a measure advanced by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to the full Senate on July 20. The bill would require Supreme Court Justices to adopt a code of conduct, create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code of conduct and other laws, improve disclosure and transparency when a Justice has a connection to a party or amicus before the Court, and require Justices to explain their recusal decisions to the public.
