Supreme Court cowards are hiding behind a hollow ethics code. Here’s how to fix that.

Justice Samuel Alito claims Congress has no power to impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court. Justices Alito and Thomas don’t just “regard themselves as unrestricted” by ethics, they have so egregiously violated the rules of fair play they shouldn’t be allowed to serve. Thomas luxuriates in a conservative donor’s uber-wealth Gifts lavished on Thomas and his crusading wife, Ginni, taste, feel and smell appropriately lux: island hopping on staffed superyachts; pampered vacations worth millions over two decades; bougie boarding school tuition; a free refurbished home for mom; disguised provocateur “fees” for Ginni, and exclusive travel on private aircraft meant for heads of state. No SCOTUS decision — not even Dobbs — has been more controversial than Citizens United, which allows high wealth donors to spend hundreds of millions in “dark money” — cash that’s difficult if not impossible to trace back to a root source — to protect fossil fuels, the National Rifle Association and other lucrative and destructive right-wing causes. The exceptionally well-staffed Supreme Court hears only 100 to 150 cases each year, so Alito has heard 2550 cases at most over his entire 17 years on the Court, not “hundreds of thousands.” He also invoked Supreme Court Rule 29.6 to legitimize his claim that staff — not he — checks for conflicts of interest, and that it is “utterly impossible” for his staff to search filings with the SEC to identify individuals with financial interests before the court.