Distinguished Fellow, National Judicial College
MONTH-IN-BRIEF (May 2023)
Ethics and Professional Responsibility
ABA Calls on SCOTUS to Adopt a Code of Ethics
At the ABA midwinter meeting in February, the House of Delegates adopted a resolution calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to develop and implement its own code of ethics. On May 9 ABA President Deborah Enix-Ross issued a statement to the same effect. The full text of that statement may be found here.
The House resolution further urged that such a code be “comparable to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges adopted by the Judicial Conference of the United States.”
That Code, which is largely based on the 1972 version of the ABA Code of Judicial Conduct, is not binding on Supreme Court Justices. Nevertheless, the Justices do consult it. Chief Justice Roberts in 2011 and Justice Kagan in 2019 publicly asserted that the Justices faithfully abide by the precepts of that code.