The Supreme Court is about to issue dozens of decisions that include hot-button political issues such as abortion, gun rights and a criminal case against Donald Trump — a treacherous path for an institution that has spent recent years navigating criticism of its decisions and judicial ethics.
The justices for the first time adopted a nonbinding code of conduct during their current term, in the wake of ProPublica articles that this week won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for revealing “how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel.”
Those stories prompted Senate Democrats to advance for the first time a bill to spell out Supreme Court ethics and launch two committee investigations into alleged ethical lapses by Justice Clarence Thomas, while they contend the 6-3 conservative majority has issued decisions that aligned with Republican policy goals.
