US Supreme Court Has Worked on Code of Conduct but Gotten Nowhere

livemint.com:

An internal plan for the US Supreme Court’s first-ever code of conduct has been stalled for years, people familiar with the matter said, and justices are deeply divided despite increased scrutiny surrounding their ethical behavior. The standstill persists despite drops in the court’s public approval and pressure from lawmakers for the high court to adopt the practice of other courts that hold their members to binding ethical rules beyond the minimum required by anticorruption and transparency laws.

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to approve Democratic-sponsored legislation that would require the Supreme Court to adopt a code of conduct with enforceable rules and stronger disclosure requirements. While the bill faces tall odds passing both narrowly divided chambers, its backers hope the justices will take their concerns seriously.

“I wish this legislation were unnecessary," Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) said Wednesday. “The fact is the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts, could clean up the Supreme Court’s ethical challenges on his own." Roberts has tried to get his colleagues to discuss the issue.

At his request, according to people familiar with the matter, the court’s staff attorney, Ethan Torrey, drafted a code for the justices’ consideration several years ago that was nearly identical to the one that applies to federal lower-court judges. One or more justices made revisions to the document after it was circulated but the project hasn’t progressed further, these people said.

The Supreme Court declined to provide a copy of the draft document or to make Torrey available for an interview. Meanwhile, Democrats have seized on perceived ethical lapses