(ConservativeFreePress.com) – Justice Samuel Alito, in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, claimed that Congress did not have the authority and power to impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court. Alito is the first Justice to publicly oppose Congress’ proposals that would increase the code of ethics that Justices need to follow. The Supreme Court has recently faced a lot of criticism over the questionable activities and financial benefits they have received from outside sources while sitting on the bench.
Alito stated that while it was a controversial view, the Constitution does not include a provision that would give Congress any regulatory authority over the Supreme Court. On Friday, the publication released segments of the interview which they claimed had taken place in early July. Last week, the Democrats were pressing a Senate Committee to consider an ethics legislation targeting the Supreme Court, but it is unlikely that the bill is going to be supported by the Senate.
Federal judges have an ethics code that they must follow which was created by the federal judiciary. However, the Justices are not obliged to follow this ethics code. The Supreme Court is unique in that it is the only federal court to have been created by the Constitution, thus it is not subjected to the same standards as other federal courts.
The Democrats have been pushing for an ethics code to be developed for the Supreme Court following ProPublica’s publication from earlier this year, which showed that Justice Clarence Thomas had received lavish vacations and had sold real estate to a GOP mega donor without ever disclosing it in his financial forms.
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