Amy Coney Barrett’s behavior makes it clear: We need a SCOTUS Code of Ethics!

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Amy Coney Barrett’s behavior makes it clear: We need a SCOTUS Code of Ethics!

Petition to Congress:
Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, and other Supreme Court justices have failed to disclose information about their spouses’ professional work, despite activists’ repeated calls. It’s clear spouses’ work — and efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Trump’s favor — may present conflicts of interest, yet justices keep failing to recuse themselves. Congress must immediately pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act to enact urgently-needed ethical standards for the Supreme Court.

Amy Coney Barrett’s husband is a lawyer specializing in “white-collar criminal defense, internal investigations, and complex commercial litigation” whose firm has represented “over 25 Fortune 500 companies.”¹ If one of his clients winds up in a case before the Supreme Court, his wife, Justice Barrett, could not be trusted to rule fairly.

But Justice Barrett won’t disclose the name of her husband’s law firm. (It’s SouthBank Legal.) Let alone a list of his clients.

Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, and John Roberts are all failing to disclose their spouses’ work and recuse themselves when necessary.¹ It’s time for Congress to step in and tackle corruption on the Supreme Court.

Sign the petition: Pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, legislation creating a Code of Ethics for Supreme Court justices and their spouses!

We shouldn’t have to guess whether Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts are recusing themselves from cases in which their families have a vested interest. This lack of transparency is unacceptable.

But the case of Justice Clarence Thomas is even worse. We know that Justice Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, was a key player in the Trump coup attempt² — yet Thomas refuses to recuse himself from cases related to the 2020 election.

Thomas recently shielded Lindsay Graham from testifying before a grand jury about his involvement in trying to overturn fair election results in Georgia in Trump’s favor.³

In January 2021, Clarence Thomas was the only justice who sided with Trump in a case determining whether the January 6th Committee could access Trump White House records.²

And later this term, Thomas could be allowed to rule on a case with terrifying implications for our democracy: Moore v. Harper. Essentially, the court will determine whether states can overturn election results and ignore the will of the people.⁴

Congress must pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, legislation banning Members of the court from trading individual stocks, requiring the court to adopt a Code of Ethics, overhauling the recusal process, and more.

Supreme Court Justices keep proving they won’t act ethically on their own. It’s time for Congress to force them to do it.

Sign the petition: Pass the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, legislation creating a Code of Ethics for Supreme Court justices and their spouses!

Sources:
1. Politico, “Justices shield spouses’ work from potential conflict of interest disclosures,” September 29, 2022.
2. Washington Post, “Virginia Thomas urged White House chief to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, texts show,” March 24, 2022.
3. CNN, “Clarence Thomas freezes order for Lindsey Graham to testify before Georgia grand jury investigating 2020 election,” October 24, 2022.
4. SCOTUS Blog, “Moore v. Harper,” September 21, 2022.

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