Chief responds on ethics
on Feb 21, 2012 at 4:58 pm
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., has told five members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Justices do not plan to adopt as a binding ethical code for themselves the rules that do bind lower federal court judges — a position that is not new. The Chief Justice responded in a letter dated February 17 to the five senators, in response to a February 13 letter in which they had urged the Court to accept that “code of conduct” as their own, and to make public any formal declarations the Justices have adopted about their ethical norms.
Along with his letter, the Chief Justice released the text of a 1991 resolution in which the Justices and Court employees accepted some limitations on their receipt of gifts and outside income. The position the Chief Justice is the same that he discussed, at greater length, in his most recent year-end report on the judiciary. That report was discussed in this post, linking to the document. ‘ Individual members of the Court have regularly taken themselves out of cases in which they or family members have a financial interest.
