Why the U.S. Supreme Court’s new code of conduct stinks

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The court recently unveiled an ethics code following a series of scandals over lavish gifts and luxury vacations received by some of its justices. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty)

The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court think we the public are confused.

Just because the justices have committed a series of ethical transgressions, like accepting lavish gifts from benefactors with business before the court and failure to disclose those lavish gifts, we seem to have come to the erroneous conclusion that the justices “regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.”