'It is time': Durbin warns SCOTUS ethics overhaul is coming

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has refused to talk to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the huge ethics problems swirling around Justice Clarence Thomas. Roberts not only declined committee chair Dick Durbin’s invitation to talk to the panel, he asserted there isn’t an ethics problem he needs to deal with.

Roberts said that a chief justice deigning to talk to what he clearly thinks is a lesser branch “is exceedingly rare, as one might expect in light of separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence.” Instead of answering any of the issues raised by Durbin in his invitation, Roberts attached the court’s Statement of Ethics Principles and Practices, which he said “all of the current Members of the Supreme Court subscribe” to.

Oh yeah? Has Chief Justice Roberts himself been abiding by the court’s ethics statement, when he repeatedly refuses to recuse himself in cases where he could have a conflict of interest because of his wife’s work as one of the nation’s top legal talent headhunters? Many of the firms who use her services—and lawyers who she finds jobs for—end up arguing before the Supreme Court. Furthermore, was Roberts complying with that ethics memo when he reported that his spouse was merely a salaried employee of her current firm, rather than a partner who receives commissions from the firms she’s helping? Is he reporting household income from those commissions, or just Jane Roberts’ base salary?