Durbin blasts Roberts for endangering court’s ‘reputation, credibility'

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was given ample warning by Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin last month: “take the lead and bring Supreme Court ethics in line with all other federal judges,” or Congress will intervene. That didn’t happen. Instead, Roberts and the court majority spent the last week of the session, in the words of Justice Elena Kagan, “violat[ing] the Constitution” by “exercis[ing] authority it does not have.”

Durbin blasted Roberts in particular and the court majority as a whole in a statement Thursday, announcing that the first order of business when the Senate resumes work next week will be hearings to advance legislation forcing ethics reform on the court. “‘God save the United States and this Honorable Court!’ These are the words spoken by the Marshal when she gavels the Supreme Court into session,” Durbin said. “But many questions remain at the end of the Court’s latest term regarding its reputation, credibility, and ‘honorable’ status.”