On November 13, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court announced the adoption of the Code of Conduct. It is a fourteen-page document stating all the rules they are or should abide by. Some of these rules are things they should do anyway such as: upholding the integrity and independence of the judiciary, avoiding impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities. There is also an added guideline around fundraising in this code of conduct.
The only thing with this new Code of Conduct is that there is no one to enforce punishment of the Justices for breaking it. If a justice goes off and breaks the code, nothing will happen to them. They will continue to hold their seat on the Supreme Court.
Many people are weary of this since there was no point in making this Code of Conduct if there were no means of enforcement. To even have a seat on this committee you need to have either been a member of the state bar for ten years or have been a judge for ten years. Both lawyers and judges have a code of conduct they must abide by or else their title may be stripped or suspended from them.
These Justices know what it is like to have a code of conduct yet once given the opportunity some chose to no longer listen to these rules. Clarence Thomas has accepted both flights and gifts from a conservative billionaire. This conservative billionaire also bought his mother a house. Samuel Alito has accepted a fully paid vacation from a different conservative billionaire. They did not openly disclose that they received these gifts to the public. They are claiming they did nothing wrong, yet if a lawyer or judge did this, they would be investigated and could lose their license.
This is important because after receiving all of these gifts these billionaires can use these Justices to pass what they want to pass. The Justices are supposed to not be bribed to have a certain opinion on cases that are coming to them. That is why the Supreme Court announced the adoption of the Code of Conduct, yet we are stuck with the same problem which is how will we enforce it.