Chief Justice John Roberts will not testify before Congress about Supreme Court ethics

Chief Justice John Roberts has notified Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin that he gained’t testify at an upcoming listening to on Supreme Court docket ethics.

“I need to respectfully decline your invitation,” Roberts wrote in a letter to Durbin, which was launched by a spokesperson for the excessive court docket Tuesday.

“Testimony earlier than the Senate Judiciary Committee by the Chief Justice of america is exceedingly uncommon as one may count on in gentle of separation of powers issues and the significance of preserving judicial independence,” Roberts wrote.

With out addressing Durbin’s particular issues over ethics Roberts merely hooked up a Assertion of Ethics Ideas and Practices to which he mentioned, “All the present Members of the Supreme Court docket subscribe.”

CNN has reached out to the court docket for remark.

The Illinois Democrat had requested Roberts, in a letter, to voluntarily testify in a listening to on Supreme Court docket ethics set to happen Might 2. The request got here within the wake of a ProPublica report that discovered that Justice Clarence Thomas had gone on a number of luxurious journeys on the invitation of a GOP megadonor. The journeys weren’t disclosed on Thomas’ public monetary filings.

Thomas mentioned in an announcement that he had not reported the journeys as a result of the ethics tips in impact on the time had not required such disclosures.

It was extensively anticipated that Roberts would decline Durbin’s invitation to seem earlier than a separate department of presidency to debate ethics reform.

Durbin responded to the refusal in an announcement Tuesday.

“Make no mistake: Supreme Court docket ethics reform should occur whether or not the Court docket participates within the course of or not,” Durbin mentioned within the assertion.

He additionally famous that he was stunned that the chief justice had amended his letter with an announcement meant to offer “readability” to the general public about how the justices contemplate ethics points.

Durbin dismissed the assertion as a “recounting of present authorized requirements of ethics” and mentioned that Roberts’ suggestion that present regulation is satisfactory “ignores the plain.”

“It’s time for Congress to simply accept its duty to ascertain an enforceable code of ethics for the Supreme Court docket, the one company of our authorities with out it,” Durbin mentioned.

Final weekend, Durbin launched a separate assertion noting that Roberts had declined to immediately reply to a letter from Durbin asking the chief justice to analyze Thomas’ filings. Durbin famous that Roberts had referred the letter to the Judicial Convention which serves because the policy-making physique of the federal courts.

Durbin’s assertion included a letter from Decide Roslynn Mauskopf, the secretary of the Judicial Convention, that mentioned, “I write in response to the letter of April 10, 2023, from you and different members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to the Chief Justice of america, which has been referred to me.”

Mauskopf added that she would ship the matter to the convention’s Committee on Monetary Disclosure.

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