Alito’s wrongdoing makes a supreme court ethics overhaul an imperative

‘What’s to be done about these persistent judicial ethics lapses?’ Photograph: Erin Schaff/EPA

The US supreme court is an extraordinarily exclusive club. The nine members are unelected and employed for life, or until they step down voluntarily. And, as in many exclusive clubs, the membership likes to keep things just as they have always been.

Tradition has its merits, of course, but recent events clearly show that change is urgently needed.