SCERT Act would require the Supreme Court to adopt a binding and enforceable code of ethical conduct
Congress, the executive branch, all lower federal courts, and every state supreme court have ethics guardrails and a mechanism for enforcing ethics rules
Washington, DC – Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA), the top Democrats on the Senate and House Judiciary Courts Subcommittees, reintroduced the bicameral Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act. The legislation would require Supreme Court justices to adopt a binding code of conduct and create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code of conduct and other laws. The SCERT Act would improve disclosure and transparency when a justice has a connection to a party or amicus before the Court, end the practice of justices ruling on their own conflicts of interests, and require justices to explain their recusal decisions to the public.
“Supreme Court justices have repeatedly gotten caught red-handed receiving extravagant gifts from politically active billionaires and refusing to report the gifts as required by law. It’s not even clear proper taxes were paid. Despite these ethical problems, the Court does not allow basic fact-finding regarding the justices’ behavior, or any neutral process to resolve ethics questions,” said Whitehouse. “This Court has repeatedly proven that it cannot police itself, so it’s time for fair and transparent guardrails, with clear procedures for receiving, investigating, and resolving ethics complaints. With Trump’s persistent improper pressure on the judiciary, it’s now urgent to get this right.”
“A judiciary whose members are accountable for their conduct, that is transparent to its citizens, and that is free from bias or partiality is truly independent,” said Johnson. “Americans need to feel confident that when serious concerns arise, the judiciary can diligently investigate and correct judicial misconduct, no matter who might be implicated. That is a judiciary whose judgements will be accepted, observed, and respected. An independent judiciary is crucial to our democracy now more than ever.”
The Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act was first introduced by Whitehouse and Johnson in February 2023. In the last two years, reporting from ProPublica and the New York Times has exposed Justice Clarence Thomas’s long record of accepting undisclosed gifts from politically active right-wing billionaires. Further reporting from ProPublica found that Justice Samuel Alito accepted private jet travel to an all-expenses-paid vacation from a hedge fund billionaire who had contributed over $80 million to Republican political organizations and had business before the Court. Justice Alito’s luxury vacation was organized by Leonard Leo, the engineer of the current right-wing Supreme Court supermajority at the behest of a cadre of right-wing billionaires and special interests.
The SCERT Act would address these ethical shortfalls and help restore Americans’ faith in the judicial branch. The bill would:
Develop a Process for Enforcement of a Code of Conduct
- Require the Supreme Court to adopt a code of conduct within 180 days;
- Require the Supreme Court to publish its code of conduct and any other rules or procedures related to ethics, financial disclosure, and judicial misconduct;
- Require the Supreme Court to create a transparent process for the public to submit ethics complaints against the justices, and for a random panel of chief judges from the lower courts to investigate and make recommendations based on those complaints;
- Require safeguards modeled on the lower courts’ complaints process to deter and punish frivolous ethics complaints.
Improve Gift Rules and Transparency
- Require the Supreme Court to adopt rules requiring disclosure of gifts, travel, and income received by justices and law clerks that are at least as rigorous as the House and Senate disclosure rules;
- Require the rules for what gifts justices can accept to be as restrictive as Congress’s;
- Require greater disclosure of amicus curiae funding;
- Require parties and amici curiae before the Supreme Court to disclose any recent gifts, travel, or reimbursements they’ve given to a justice;
- Require parties and amici curiae before the Supreme Court to disclose any lobbying or money they spent promoting a justice’s confirmation to the Court.
Strengthen Recusal Requirements
- Create new recusal requirements governing gifts, income, or reimbursements given to judges;
- Create new recusal requirements governing a party’s lobbying or spending money to campaign for a judge’s confirmation;
- Ensure that requests for a judge to recuse are reviewed by a panel of randomly selected, impartial judges, or by the rest of the justices at the Supreme Court;
- Require written notification and explanations of recusal decisions;
- Require the judiciary to develop rules explaining when a judge’s connection to an amicus curiae brief might require recusal; and
- Require the Federal Judicial Center to study and report to Congress every two years on the extent to which the judiciary is complying with recusal requirements.
Late last year, Whitehouse released a report that found every state supreme court (or equivalent high court) subjects its judges or justices to ethics reviews—similar to the processes that apply to all federal judges except the Supreme Court under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act. The SCERT Act would eliminate this loophole by establishing an ethics review process for the Supreme Court.
Congress has an appropriate and well-established role in oversight of the judiciary and updating ethics laws that apply to federal officials, including federal judges and justices. Congress passed the Ethics in Government Act and judicial recusal law, which expressly apply to Supreme Court justices. Congress created through statute the Judicial Conference, which administers financial disclosure laws for the entire judiciary. Congress also has the authority to regulate and make exceptions to which cases justices can hear, outside of a small category of cases required by the Constitution.
The legislation was cosponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Coons (D-DE), Richard Durbin (D-IL), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
“In a democracy the Supreme Court must be able to issue rulings independently and without misconduct, bias or undue influence,” said Debra Perlin, Vice President for Policy at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “The Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act (SCERT) helps to achieve this goal. By establishing a process for filing and investigating misconduct complaints, preventing abuse of those procedures, creating strict requirements for disclosing and accepting gifts and mandating robust transparency and disqualification measures, SCERT ensures that the public has important information about the justices’ activities, eliminates questions about what conflicts might lie behind closed doors and serves to restore the Court’s shaken credibility. CREW applauds Senator Whitehouse and Representative Johnson for reintroducing this critical legislation and urges both houses to pass it expeditiously.”
“There are countless examples across the ages of Congress regulating certain institutional features of the Supreme Court, from its calendar to its funding structure to its financial disclosure responsibilities. Sen. Whitehouse’s bill maintains that history and tradition by strengthening the justices’ conflict-of-interest rules, toughening gift and travel rules and instituting real enforceable ethics. It might be a tautology but raising the bar raises the bar, and the Court should welcome this opportunity — thanks to Sen. Whitehouse’s continued efforts — to reassert some ethical leadership,” said Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth.
“The Supreme Court has been evolving into the most powerful branch of government, dictating what is and is not constitutional, with no oversight and no popular reprieve. Political partisans who cannot win at the polls have tapped into this and stacked the unaccountable court in their favor. Public Citizen wholly endorses this legislation that would help restore the balance of power between the three branches of government,” said Craig Holman, Ph.D., Public Citizen.
“Ethics reform for the Supreme Court is long overdue. The American people deserve a Court they can trust and respect–not one that is beholden to special interest groups and billionaire donors. Scandal after scandal has shown that the Court is unwilling to hold itself to the ethical standard that all other federal judges are sworn to uphold. Congress can and must act, and this bill is a necessary first step,” said Maggie Jo Buchanan, Interim Executive Director of Demand Justice.
“Americans deserve a legal system that isn’t influenced by billionaires, big corporations, and special interest backers advancing an agenda that shifts power away from ordinary families. But the Supreme Court’s corruption crisis has repeatedly made clear how broken our Courts are and the urgent need for reform. That has been especially clear in recent months, as President Trump’s unconstitutional and self-dealing actions have made the need for public trust in our judiciary even more critical. The SCERT Act would substantially strengthen ethics standards. We applaud Senator Whitehouse and Representative Johnson and their cosponsors for leading the charge to restore credibility and integrity to our highest Court,” said Accountable.US/Accountable.NOW Executive Director Tony Carrk.
The legislation was also endorsed by Common Cause, Citizens United/Let America Vote, New York City Bar Association, People’s Parity Project, League of Conservation Voters, Court Accountability Action, Free Law Project, American Governance Institute, Lawyers for Good Government, and Stand Up America.
Whitehouse has championed a series of bills to root out special interest control of the courts and repair the American people’s trust in the judiciary. Whitehouse has introduced the Supreme Court Biennial Appointments and Term Limits Act to ensure new justices take the bench every two years and establish 18-year terms in which justices participate in the Court’s full docket of cases.
Whitehouse’s Supreme Court Review Act would provide Congress with fast-track procedures to respond more quickly with legislation to Supreme Court decisions that rest on an interpretation of a federal statute or eliminate or diminish a constitutional right. Whitehouse’s DISCLOSE Act would shine a light on the big special interests spending unlimited sums to purchase influence over the government and require groups that spend money on ads supporting or opposing judicial nominees to disclose their donors.
Full text of the bill is available here.
