Alito gives new momentum to Supreme Court reforms

Legislation to address the ethical conduct of Supreme Court justices gained new momentum Wednesday after a report revealed that conservative Justice Samuel Alito accepted a luxury vacation from wealthy benefactors without disclosing it publicly.  

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a key subcommittee chairman, announced in response to the ProPublica report that they will mark up Supreme Court ethics legislation after July 4. 

The effort, however, is already running into opposition from Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who warned that Democrats should “stay out” of the court’s business.  

“Look, the Supreme Court, in my view, can’t be dictated to by Congress. I think the chief justice will address these issues. Congress should stay out of it because we don’t, I think, have the jurisdiction to tell the Supreme Court how to handle the issue,” McConnell told reporters Wednesday.  

Other Republicans, however, have raised misgivings about the growing public perception that the Supreme Court has an ethics problem.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told a reporter for HuffPost that the Supreme Court “probably should” consider strengthening its ethics standards.  

“They would do well to go take a look at public perceptions,” he said. 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) is the only Republican cosponsor of a bill from Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) requiring the Supreme Court to create and implement a code of conduct for itself. 

Murkowski told The Hill in April that the court’s credibility was at stake after ProPublica reported that conservative Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose luxury trips he accepted from conservative donor Harlan Crow, including trips aboard his Bombardier Global 5000 jet.  

“I think we are moving dangerously close to a place where the public has lost faith and trust in the credibility of our governing institutions. They don’t trust the court; I don’t think what’s going on with Justice Thomas is helping anything,” she said at the time. 

Durbin and Whitehouse expressed frustration over the reported behavior of Alito and Thomas. 

“The Supreme Court is in an ethical crisis of its own making due to the acceptance of lavish gifts from parties with business before the Court that several Justices have not disclosed,” the two said in a joint statement. “The reputation and credibility of the Court are at stake. Chief Justice Roberts could resolve this today, but he has not acted.”

Whitehouse introduced a bill with House Democrats in February requiring the Supreme Court to adopt a code of conduct for itself and requiring justices to adhere to the same gift, travel and income disclosure standards as members of Congress.  

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters Wednesday that he supports Supreme Court ethics reform but stopped short of pledging to bring a bill to the floor.

“I support their bill, it’s going to come out of Judiciary. Let’s see what happens there first,” he said.

ProPublica reported this week that Alito accepted a trip aboard a private plane owned by hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer in 2008. It would have cost Alito as much as $100,000 each way to charter his own play to fly to and from Alaska. 

Alito did not publicly report the trip when he stayed at the King Salmon Lodge, which was owned by conservative donor Robin Arkley II, according to ProPublica. The report included photos of Alito posing alongside Singer, with each man hoisting an enormous salmon for the camera. 

Alito later decided not to recuse himself from a case in which the court ruled 7-1 in Singer’s favor in a dispute over attempts to recover debts from the Republic of Argentina. Singer’s hedge fund ultimately received $2.4 billion as a result, ProPublica reported. 

Alito defended himself in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, arguing that he wasn’t required to disclose the trip aboard Singer’s private plane because a plane could be construed as a “facility” and the instructions for completing a financial disclosure report don’t require reporting hospitality on “property or facilities owned by [a] person.” 

The justice said he had no obligation to recuse himself from the case affecting debt recovery from Argentina because he had only spoken to Singer on “a handful of occasions” and didn’t know he had an interest before the court. 

Some Republicans rallied to Alito’s defense. 

“I agree with what he wrote in his op-ed, and he’s right,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), a member of the Judiciary Committee. 

Other Republicans, including Sens. Kevin Cramer (N.D.) and Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), said justices as a matter of general principle should recuse themselves when friends or wealthy donors who take them on luxury trips have business before the court.  

Cramer told reporters Wednesday that he thinks it’s OK for justices to accept free trips from friends, “as long as those people don’t have a case before the Supreme Court of the United States.” 

“I would guess that they have some ethics that govern that sort of thing in the courts, right? Don’t they? I mean, that would be a problem if that’s proven to be true,” he said when asked about ProPublica’s report. 

Lummis said she wasn’t aware of the latest report about Alito but expressed confidence in Roberts, the chief justice, to manage any ethical issues affecting the court.  

“Justice Roberts seems to be very tuned into the court’s reputation, very much wants to have the public feel comfortable that the Supreme Court and the other courts are above [im]propriety, that they are squeaky clean,” she said.

Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said the new report about Alito’s conduct would fuel calls to reform the Supreme Court.  

She said there’s a “seeming inability of the chief justice and the justices to establish and ethical standard and live up to that standard.” 

“The story about Justice Alito is very reminiscent of the story about Justice Thomas, and it is not ethical to be accepting free trips in private jets to fly to vacation under any circumstances, especially from somebody who is then going to have business before the court,” she said, noting that polls show public approval of the Supreme Court has dropped to an all-time low.