2023-07-12 11:07:15
Por Chris Megerian, Eric Tucker y Brian Slodysko – The Associated Press
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee declared Tuesday that it was time for Supreme Court justices to put their conduct consistent with the ethical standards of other branches of governmentin response to The Associated Press investigative articles on the highest court.
“If they would just set the ground rules for any other branch of government, it would give us a lot more confidence in their integrity,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. Durbin made the comment in Vilnius, Lithuania, where he was attending the NATO summit as part of the US delegation.
The AP published articles showing that Judge Sonia Sotomayor, aided by her staff, has promoted the sales of his books in visits to universities during the last decade.
[El juez conservador de la Corte Suprema Samuel Alito viajó en 2008 a un hotel de lujo en Alaska (que cuesta más de 1,000 dólares al día) junto a un multimillonario, Paul Singer, propietario de un fondo de inversión, que lo llevó hasta allí en su avión privado, según informó la web de periodismo de investigación ProPublica. El fondo de inversión de Singer apareció ante la Corte Suprema en años posteriores en hasta 10 ocasiones.]
Universities have used judges’ trips as a lure for financial contributions, the AP says, by placing them at events with wealthy donors, and which the judges have performed travel for educational purposes with expenses paid to attractive places unrelated to teaching.
[Un juez de la Corte Suprema aceptó unas vacaciones de lujo de un millonario, no lo reportó y luego juzgó casos que le afectaban]
The Supreme Court Building, in Washington, DCAssociated Press
The series comes following news during the last six months that have raised ethical concerns regarding the activities of magistrates. Durbin and other Washington lawmakers have announced that a bill that would force the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics will be voted on next week. Although the measure is unlikely to pass, it sends a signal of discontent at the highest court.
The nation’s highest court operates without a code of ethicsand instead follows what its chairman, John Roberts, has called a set of “ethical principles and practices.”
[Ketanji Brown Jackson: Jueza de la Corte Suprema nominada por Biden revela que recibió regalos valorados en miles de dólares]
Asked regarding the notes by The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, called them “powerful reporting” that amounted to a “drop-by-drop indictment of a Supreme Court that doesn’t seem to answer to anyone for their ethical violations.
“The President of the Court really should be taking this into account for the good of that instance and the countrybecause the Supreme Court will not exist as a truly viable institution if it continues without addressing the need for a code of ethics,” he said.
In contrast, Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, and also a member of the Judiciary Committee, said that Congress should leave the ethical issue to the Court and that the Democrats’ pursuit of ethics reform “is part of a long assault on the Court, which the left thinks is undermining a lot of the things they’ve accomplished over the years in lawsuits. To me, that’s why.” .
“I think it’s an equal branch of government that we have no jurisdiction over. Second, I think this is part of a false narrative that the court is out of control and needs Congress to save it,” Cornyn said.
Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis and an expert on legal ethics, said the latest reports reveal the extent to which “ethics issues in the Supreme Court are an equal opportunity scandal.”
“It’s not just regarding Clarence Thomas and [Samuel] Alito,” Clark said, referring to media reports regarding the two conservative justices. “It is an institutional problem rather than an individual one”.
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Megerian reported from Vilnius, Lithuania. AP writer Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.
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