Kaine, Colleagues Introduce Bill to Require Supreme Court to Adopt Binding and Enforceable Code of Ethics
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a former civil rights lawyer and legal ethics professor, joined 26 of his colleagues to reintroduce the bicameral Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act, legislation to require Supreme Court justices to adopt a binding code of conduct and create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code of conduct and other laws. Specifically, the legislation would improve disclosure and transparency when a justice has a connection to a party before the Court, end the practice of justices ruling on their own conflicts of interest, and require justices to explain their recusal decisions to the public.
“Our nation was founded on the principle that no one is above the law, including our Supreme Court justices, but recent actions of some justices have led the American people to lose faith in this ideal,” said Kaine. “We must rebuild public trust in our nation’s highest court, which is why I’m proud to be reintroducing this commonsense legislation to create a tough, enforceable, and mandatory ethics standard to ensure the justices are acting in the best interest of the American people and properly carrying out their duties under the Constitution.”
In recent years, reporting from ProPublica and The New York Times has exposed Justice Clarence Thomas’s long record of accepting undisclosed gifts from politically active right-wing billionaires. Further reporting from ProPublica found that Justice Samuel Alito accepted private jet travel to an all-expenses-paid vacation from a hedge fund billionaire who had contributed over $80 million to Republican political organizations and had business before the Court. Justice Alito’s luxury vacation was organized by Leonard Leo, the engineer of the current right-wing Supreme Court supermajority, at the behest of a cadre of right-wing billionaires and special interests.
The SCERT Act would address these and future ethical shortfalls by developing a process for the creation and enforcement of a code of conduct, improving the rules and transparency regarding gifts to justices, and strengthening recusal requirements to ensure impartiality of justices.
In addition to Kaine, the bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Chris Coons (D-DE), John Fetterman (D-PA), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
The SCERT Act is endorsed by Accountable.US/Accountable.NOW, Common Cause, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Citizens United/Let America Vote, Demand Justice, Fix the Court, New York City Bar Association, People’s Parity Project, League of Conservation Voters, Court Accountability Action, Free Law Project, American Governance Institute, Lawyers for Good Government, Public Citizen, and Stand Up America.
As a lawyer and legal ethics professor, Kaine has long supported Supreme Court ethics reform. In 2024, Kaine strongly supported President Joe Biden’s proposed Supreme Court reforms, which would have created an enforceable ethics code. In 2023, following the alarming ProPublica report, Kaine called on Chief Justice Roberts to investigate Justice Thomas. In 2023, Kaine also joined a letter urging the Senate Appropriations Committee to include language in upcoming government funding legislation to direct the Supreme Court to adopt binding, transparent, and enforceable ethics rules.
Full text of the SCERT Act is available here.
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