All is not well at the U.S. Supreme Court. Justice Clarence Thomas is facing an intensifying ethics mess that neither he nor his allies have been able to explain away. Another one of his far-right allies, Justice Neil Gorsuch, is now facing a separate ethics controversy of his own.
Americans’ confidence in the high court, meanwhile, has reached depths unseen since the dawn of modern polling.
It was against this backdrop that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin invited Chief Justice Roberts to testify in early May about judicial ethics rules and potential reforms. As recently as a few days ago, the Illinois Democrat said he had not yet received a formal reply.
As NBC News reported, that changed late yesterday.
Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday declined an invitation from a high-ranking Democratic senator to testify at a congressional hearing on ethics rules for members of the Supreme Court. In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Roberts suggested that his participation could pose a threat to judicial independence.
“Testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by the Chief Justice of the United States is exceedingly rare, as one might expect in light of separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence,” Roberts wrote.
If the high court and its justices were functioning well, in a controversy-free environment, enjoying the respect and confidence of all, it’d be easier to understand Roberts’ reluctance to testify.
But therein lies the point: There’s a cloud hanging over the institution. The chief justice’s reluctance to talk about the problem won’t make the cloud blow away.
Indeed, my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin wrote a terrific assessment of Roberts’ letter to Durbin, describing it as “pathetic.”
The question at this point, of course, is what happens now.
On Capitol Hill, developments continue to unfold. Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, for example,…
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