Some Republican lawmakers said Tuesday that they want to see more transparency around the Supreme Court, though they railed against the Democratic push for Congress to impose a code of conduct on the justices who exempt themselves from many of the ethics rules that lower courts follow.
The debate – coming after several weeks of reports of alleged ethical lapses by the justices that have dominated headlines – was the subject of a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where a law professor, legal advocates and two former judges, including former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, testified on whether Supreme Court ethics reform was warranted.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the committee, said Democrats were leading an “unseemly effort” to “destroy the legitimacy” of the court under conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who declined an invitation to testify.
He argued Congress should be focused on boosting security around the justices, as he accused Democrats of exacerbating the threats and hostility they face.
But the South Carolina senator conceded that he has “expressed a desire for the court to be more transparent” and “to have rules that the public can relate to,” even as he has insisted it should be left to the court to decide how to regulate itself.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who previously led the committee, said that “judges are expected to comply with high standards and integrity, and it does appear that there needs to be better oversight.”
He accused Democrats, however, “and their left-wing dark money interests groups, as well their allies in the liberal media” of engaging in “a crusade to threaten pack and smear the courts.”
Democrats, meanwhile, continued to beat the drum around what they described as the failure of the Supreme Court to act on its own to…
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