Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is open to an enforceable code of ethics for the Supreme Court.
In an interview with CBS Evening News on Sunday, Sept. 1, Jackson said she is “considering” supporting a plan to enforce the code of conduct for justices that was issued in November 2023.
“A binding code of ethics is pretty standard for judges, and so I guess the question is, is the Supreme Court any different?” she said in the interview. “I guess I have not seen a persuasive reason as to why the court is different than the other courts.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
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Jackson continued to say she is “considering supporting it as a general matter. I’m not going to get into commenting on particular policy proposals. But from my perspective, I don’t have any problem with an enforceable code.”
The interview was her first broadcast interview since being sworn in as the country’s first Black female justice.
Jackson also shared that she personally follows “the rules, whatever they are, with respect to ethical obligations.”
“And it is important, in my opinion, to do so. It really boils down to impartiality, that is what the rules are about,” she said, adding that the public has a right to know whether the judges are accepting gifts that could be thought of as persuasive act.
The Supreme Court’s code of ethics has long been criticized by politicians. President Joe Biden proposed a three-part plan to reform the Supreme Court in July, one of which included enforcing the ethics code, which he said is currently “weak and self-enforced.”
“I served as a U.S. senator for 36 years, including as chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee. I have overseen more Supreme Court nominations as senator, vice president and president than anyone living today. I have great respect for our institutions and the separation of powers,” Biden wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post.
Joe Biden.
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“What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms,” he continued at the time.
The ethics issue has grown over recent years as two justices in particular — conservatives Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito — have declined to distance themselves from cases with potential conflicts of interest and failed to disclose a variety of gifts from wealthy GOP donors.
“Scandals involving several justices have caused the public to question the court’s fairness and independence, which are essential to faithfully carrying out its mission of equal justice under the law,” Biden wrote.
“I’m calling for a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court. This is common sense,” he continued. “Every other federal judge is bound by an enforceable code of conduct, and there is no reason for the Supreme Court to be exempt.”
Meanwhile, Jackson is gearing up for the release of her debut memoir, Lovely One, which comes out on Tuesday, Sept. 3. “Mine has been an unlikely journey,” Jackson said in a statement from January. “But the path was paved by courageous women and men in whose footsteps I placed my own, road warriors like my own parents, and also luminaries in the law, whose brilliance and fortitude lit my way. This memoir marries the public record of my life with what is less known.”
She spoke about her book in the CBS Evening News interview, saying, “I was born within five years of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, so they were like, here is our opportunity to make sure that our daughter can do all the things we did not get to do. My parents had raised me to believe that I could do anything I wanted to do. That was my way of thinking about myself.”
