Lindsey Graham rejects Senate Democrats’ Supreme Court ethics proposals

An attempt by Senate Democrats on Wednesday to impose new ethics rules on the Supreme Court was blocked by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) sought a unanimous consent request to pass legislation championed by him and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to implement a code of conduct for the high court.

It also includes mechanisms to investigate alleged violations, require public disclosures of gifts and other potential conflicts of interest, and force justices to explain recusals publicly.

“The ethics crisis at the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, is unacceptable,” Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat as majority whip, said. “It is unsustainable and unworthy of the highest court in the land.”

The effort came after years of lavish gifts, many of which were initially undisclosed, from party activists, donors, and others to conservative and liberal justices that raised questions about impartiality. More recently, there have been revelations about conservative justices or their family members wading into partisan politics outside their official court duties.

Republicans have decried Democrats’ yearslong endeavor to impose such laws over the Supreme Court as an attempt to undermine its conservative majority and an inappropriate effort to govern a separate branch of government under America’s separation of powers.

“This would be an overreach, undermine the court’s ability to operate effectively, and has been a continued effort by our friends on the Democratic side to undermine a court they don’t like,” Graham, the top Republican on Senate Judiciary, said.

Durbin’s Judiciary Committee advanced the legislation last year along party lines, but Democrats have declined to bring it to the floor for a roll call vote because it would fail to break the chamber’s 60-vote filibuster threshold.

Any one senator can block such unanimous consent requests.

The Democratic-led effort came as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has shifted to an election-year agenda to showcase legislation on hot-button issues that Democrats feel could hurt Republicans at the ballot box in November, including reproductive rights and immigration.

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The Supreme Court adopted its own code of ethics last year in the face of increased pressure over undisclosed travel and gifts. But Democrats say it fails to go far enough because it allows justices to essentially govern themselves at their own discretion, stating they “may accept reasonable compensation and reimbursement of expenses for permitted activities” if the gift is not intended to influence a justice’s duties “or otherwise appear improper.”

Justice Samuel Alito has rebuffed calls from Durbin and other Democrats to recuse himself from two Jan. 6 cases after it was revealed flags tied to Capitol rioters and efforts to overturn the 2020 election were flown at two of his properties in 2021.