Former Federal Judge Demands Supreme Court Form Ethics Panel

The Supreme Court’s relatively new code of conduct lacks teeth. A former judge and federal watchdog said they know how to change that.

A retired federal judge and federal watchdog are demanding that the Supreme Court create a three-member ethics panel, following a string of embarrassing scandals over undisclosed gifts and travel for judges from right-wing outside groups.

Former U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of California — who also serves as director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute — joined arms with the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington this week to propose a three-member ethics panel that would be, among other things, tasked with giving Supreme Court justices confidential advice and creating a mechanism where a justice’s qualification to preside over a case can be challenged because of “personal bias, prior involvement as legal counsel or financial conflict of interest.”

The renewed push to the court comes as support for an “enforceable” ethics code has emerged publicly from Justices Kentanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan this summer and after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced a plan to reform the Supreme Court.

The idea of toughening up the court’s current and mostly feckless code of conduct isn’t that far-fetched. The Supreme Court’s decision to adopt a code of conduct in November 2023 — and for the first time ever in its history — only happened after investigative reporting into the court from groups like ProPublica and others erupted and public backlash followed.

The structure of the proposed panel and how its powers would be outlined resemble existing checks and balances on judicial conduct in the nation’s lower courts. Fogel and Noah Bookbinder, the president of CREW, noted it was Kagan who suggested recently that lower court judges could help enforce the code of conduct for the highest court in the land.