- A federal judge in Massachusetts wrote a scathing opinion essay in the New York Times, excoriating the Supreme Court's recent ethical debacles.
- Judge Michael Ponsor, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, said the high court needs a code of ethics.
"To me, this feels personal," wrote senior US District Judge Michel Ponsor in a New York Times opinion essay. "For the country, it feels ominous. What in the world has happened to the Supreme Court's nose?"
Ponsor, who was appointed to the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts by President Bill Clinton in late 1993 and confirmed in 1994, said something "smells" off in the Supreme Court, but none of the justices have noticed.
In his essay, the senior judge laid into the high court over a series of reports from news outlets across the country detailing repeated apparent conflicts of interest by both left and right-wing members of the court.
In 2023 alone, publications have revealed Justice Clarence Thomas accepted undisclosed gifts and lavish travel accommodations by a billionaire, that Justice Samuel Alito took an expensive fishing vacation with another billionaire who later had business before the court, and that Justice Sonia Sotomayor's taxpayer-funded staff has often push institutions to purchase her books.
"If reports are true," he wrote, "some of our justices are, sadly, letting us down," before saying that instituting a code of ethics for the Supreme Court would be an improvement.
"Even a nonenforceable code that the justices formally pledged to respect would be an improvement on the current void," he wrote.
Following the reports of several Supreme Court justices crossing ethical lines, a plethora of congressional Democrats have also called for the Supreme Court to institute a code of ethics. As it stands, the high court does not have one, and the court's chief justice has pushed back on efforts to instate one.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator sitting on the Senate Judiciary Committee, underscored his view that the Supreme Court needs a code of ethics in a statement to the AP.
"The Supreme Court will no longer exist as a truly viable institution if it continues the failure to face the need for a code of ethics," Blumenthal said.