Scandals and SCOTUS: Improving US Supreme Court Ethics

On December 18 Common Cause Ohio and the Ohio Fair Courts Alliance on held an in-depth forum where a panel of experts explored the questions that are now swirling about influence and ethics at the nation’s highest court.

Panelists included: Alex Aronson, former chief counsel to US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Jennifer Ahearn—Brennan Center for Justice, Lisa Graves—True North Research, and  Sarah Turberville—The Constitution Project

Click here to watch the Scandals and SCOTUS.

Call To Action – two ways you can advocate for SCOTUS ethics:

• Sign Now – Tell Congress: Pass a Supreme Court Code of Conduct. Congress must pass a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court and ensure that our highest court is held to the highest ethical standards.
• Tell Congress: No One Is Above Accountability. Demand that Congress take the ethics crisis at the Supreme Court seriously and investigate improper influence and corruption at the court.

Learn more by watching a few videos:

• Dark Money and the Supreme Court  Civil rights attorney Alex Aronson explored dark money and the Supreme Court with Pete Dominick (Stand Up! With Pete, June 5, 2023).
• Supreme Court: Ready for Reform? Conversation with Brennan Center President Michael Waldman and US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about possible reforms (Brennan Center for Justice at NYU, November 14, 2023)
• Does the U.S. Supreme Court Have Credibility? Cassandra Burke Robertson, Professor of Law and Director, Center for Professional Ethics School of Law at Case Western University and  Shih-Chun Steven Chien, Assistant Professor of Law, Cleveland State University School explore confidence in SCOTUS and reform options. (Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Cleveland, October 1, 2023) 

Love podcasts?  ProPublica and On the Media explore the legacy of one of the most significant figures pulling strings behind the scenes for the last 30 years, Leonard Leo. Check out the three-part series called, We Don’t Talk About Leonard (Leo). You can find the episodes here.

Take a Deep Dive 

• A “Delicate Matter”: Clarence Thomas’ Private Complaints About Money Sparked Fears He Would Resign, ProPublica, December 18, 2023
• The Judiciary Has Policed Itself for Decades. It Doesn’t Work, ProPublica, December 13, 2023
• Clarence Thomas’ Benefactors Finally Face the Music, by David Janovsky and Sarah Turberville, Slate, December 4, 2023 
• What’s Missing from the Supreme Court’s New Ethics Code, by Jen Ahearn, Brennan Center, November 16, 2023
• US Supreme Court Code of Conduct released by the Court on November 13, 2023
• Under ethics pressure, Supreme Court announces it’s adopting code of conduct, ABC News, November 13, 2023
• Major Opponent to Ohio’s Issue 1 Has Ties to Leonard Leo and Other Extreme Anti-Abortion Group, analysis by Ansev Demirhan/True North in Ms magazine, November 2, 2023 
• This is why it’s difficult to rein in the Supreme Court, CNN, August 10, 2023
• Friends of the Court: SCOTUS Justices’ Beneficial Relationships With Billionaire Donors, ProPublica, August 10, 2023
• Abortion is still under threat by dark money groups that helped overturn Roe, analysis by Ansev Demirhan/True North in the Guardian, October 25, 2023
• Model Code of Conduct for U.S. Supreme Court Justices, proposed by the Project on Government Oversight, March 9, 2023
• The Billionaire Kingmaker (Still) Dividing the Nation, Progressive Magazine,  January 3, 2023
• This Is Not the Culmination of the Right-Wing Legal Movement–It’s the Dawn of It, by Lisa Graves/True North in Common Dreams, May 17, 2022 
• Testimony by Lisa Graves on the need for transparency in judicial appointments and the disclosure of dark money before the US Senate Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, March 10, 2021
• Backgrounder on the Supreme Court, Judge Amy Barrett, Trump Advisor Leonard Leo, and Billionaire Charles Koch, by Lisa Graves and Evan Vorpahl, True North Research, October 26, 2020 
• Ethics in Government Act (1978)

Some books to check out:

• The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics by Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields
• Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America’s Most Powerful and Private Dynasty by Daniel Schulman 
• Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer