Former Bush White House ethics czar Richard Painter once coached Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts on ethics ahead of their confirmation hearings. Now, he is disgusted with the state of the court whose nominees he helped advise.
He appeared on MSNBC to rage against their inability to follow basic ethics, following a controversial term of decisions against a backdrop of scandal, with multiple Republican justices caught accepting luxury gifts and travel, and their families accepting paid commissions, from billionaires and interest groups with litigation before the court.
“The justices, I am sure, are off on their yachts and planes with the billionaires, and fishing expeditions and the like,” said Painter. “We’ve had a number of decision from this court the past few years that benefit the very, very well-to-do and continue to put the disadvantaged, women, minorities, those struggling with student loans.”
With respect to Alito and Roberts, Painter continued, “I am very saddened by what is happening with this court, where the chief justice says I’m not even going to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee and explain what is going on. We have no accountability for this court, no external investigation of the court. We merely rely on the justices to follow the law on their own accord. It’s not working. We have colleagues covering for colleagues, and this court has an accountability crisis, and we need to fix it.”
Painter specifically recommended establishing an Office of Inspector General for the Supreme Court, as exists for numerous executive agencies, as well as a full-time ethics lawyer advising the justices.
“The situation we have right now is a mess,” said Painter. “We have justices who can’t even fill out their financial disclosure form and determine the Ethics Act of 1978 themselves, and yet they are interpreting a law that applies to every single American. They interpreted the HEROES Act of 2003 to wipe out President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program? They can’t even figure out their own financial disclosure forms and figure out the law there, why are they determining the United States Constitution and federal statutes for the rest of America. This Supreme Court needs to clean up its act.”
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Richard Painter on Supreme Court ethics
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