The Supreme Court’s announcement of its first code of conduct Monday did little to damper the Democratic drive to pass legislation to bind the justices with a set of tighter ethics rules.
Democrats and some outside advocates have spent months backing legislation to impose recusal standards, an ethics complaint review process and more changes to the court — none of which was included in the court’s 14-page code.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the main Senate backer of Supreme Court ethics legislation, called the code “a chink in their armor of indifference” but said it had no teeth because it lacks enforcement provisions and only says justices “should” act a certain way.
