Justice Kagan supports ethics code but says Supreme Court divided on how to proceed

PORTLAND, Ore. — Justice Elena Kagan publicly declared her support for an ethics code for the U.S. Supreme Court but said there was no consensus among the justices on how to proceed, suggesting the high court is grappling with public concerns over its ethics practices. Her comments put her at odds with her fellow court member Justice Samuel Alito, who last month said Congress does not have the authority to establish ethics rules for the court. At the 9th Circuit’s conference in Montana last year — held less than a month after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — Kagan made headlines for warning the court risks losing its legitimacy if it is perceived as political. The 63-year-old justice made similar comments on Thursday, emphasizing “the importance of courts looking like they’re doing law, rather than willy-nilly imposing their own preferences as the composition of the court changes.” Some of the biggest decisions of the past term were made along ideological lines, with the six conservative justices in the majority and the three liberal justices in dissent.