Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Monday stuck by her suggestion of how to enforce the high court’s new ethics code. “It seems like a good idea in terms of ensuring that we comply with our own code of conduct going forward in the future,” she said of using lower court judges to assess whether a justice should recuse herself from a case or shouldn’t have accepted a gift. “It seems like a good idea in terms of ensuring that people have confidence that we're doing exactly that.” Kagan declined to respond to a charge from the leader of a religious-rights group that she’s being “somewhat treasonous,” reports USA Today. “I don’t want to dignify it any further,” Kagan said at New York University School of Law when asked about the criticism from Kelly Shackelford, president and CEO of First Liberty Institute. Shackelford made that comment during a call with his group’s top donors, ProPublica reported. He also shared a gushing email from Ginni Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, praising First Liberty’s opposition to Supreme Court reform proposals.
Those proposals include term limits and an enforcement mechanism for the ethics code the Supreme Court adopted last year. The code followed stories detailing lavish travel Thomas accepted from billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow, and revelations that Justice Samuel Alito in 2008 flew to Alaska for a fishing trip on a private jet belonging to a hedge fund manager who repeatedly brought cases before the high court. The code says justices can accept "reasonable compensation and reimbursement" for travel "if the source of the payments does not give the appearance of influencing the justice’s official duties or otherwise appear improper." It encourages justices to recuse from a pending case if they have "a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party." The rules are not self-enforcing. Kagan has suggested that Chief Justice John Roberts appoint a panel of lower court judges who could assess complaints against the justices. Some say that would increase the number of baseless charges against justices – a criticism Kagan said “confuses me” because it creates a mechanism to say “that’s a frivolous charge.” Others are concerned that lower court judges might be worried about offending a justice who reviews their rulings. “I just think they’re not so afraid of us,” Kagan said. “There are plenty of judges ... who would do a task like that in a very fair minded and serious way.”
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