The Supremes just adopted a fairly watered down iteration of the model version federal judicial code of conduct.
Y A W N.
In prior ages, this would have been superfluous. But in this age… we’ve seen… Thomas, Alito and even Kavanaugh (the latter never having explained who exactly paid off his prior ~$260,000 in unsecured debts — he personally did not).
But it is Clarence Thomas whose lifestyle will be most crimped by the prohibition on perks without disclosures [at new Canon 4.D.(3)], now.
Long overdue — particularly for a guy driving a very high end mobile home, whenever he goes on vacation in the US — one financed by a billionaire with cases then pending before the highest court.
Damn. And a guy whose wife organized the transport buses for the 01.06.21 rioters.
Updated: While the lower courts’ codes set out explicit processes for enforcement in the case of alleged violations of the code — this one does not. That is in part due to the notion that this is the highest court. And generally speaking, even though I disagree with most of his views, I do trust this Chief Justice will discipline future repeat violators, like Clarence Thomas.
But some future Chief? Not so sure, about that. Thus, I called it “watered down”. But as a lawyer and citizen, I now know I have standing to bring any future violation by Thomas directly to the federal judicial ethics commission, since the Supremes have adopted that code, as applicable — should this, or a future Chief… fail to act.
Out.
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