‘Dangerous’ Democrat judicial ethics bill would allow any ‘jackaloon’ to demand a recusal, Sen. Kennedy says

Senator John Kennedy, R-La., called a new bill from Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats to install a Supreme Court code of ethics a “court-killing machine” that was both “dangerous” and “unserious.” 

In a committee meeting Thursday, the senators debated a proposal – Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency (SCERT) Act – that its Democrat sponsors argued would impose a code of conduct for justices on the court. Republicans argued that there are pre-existing ethics rules in places for the justices, governed by a separate body, which just recently updated its rules for disclosures. 

After several hours of debating the bill and roughly 60 proposed amendments, the measure eventually cleared the committee in a party-line vote. But not before Senator Kennedy accused his Democratic colleagues of knowing the measure is “unserious” but wanting to “make a point.” 

“You don’t have to be ‘Oliver Wendell Scalia’ to figure out that this legislation is meant to be a court-killing machine,” he charged.

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“It would allow any jackaloon out there in America in a tinfoil hat, whose own dog thinks he’s an utter nutter, to file a motion to recuse a United States Supreme Court Justice.”

“Now, what could possibly go wrong? And my Democratic colleagues know that,” he said. 

Kennedy said the bill is “dangerous, but it’s unserious.” 

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“And I think my colleagues, some of them know that, and they’re trying to make a point,” he said. 

Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., praised the bill’s advancement Thursday, stating that, “Chief Justice Roberts failed to act on ethics reform before adjourning the Supreme Court for the summer.” 

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“I said from the beginning: if the Court won’t act, Congress will,” Durbin stated in a tweet. 

Senators Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., cosponsored the measure, claiming it would require Supreme Court justices to adopt a code of conduct, create a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code of conduct and other laws, improve disclosure and transparency when a justice has a connection to a party or amicus before the Court, and require justices to explain their recusal decisions to the public.

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The measure now advances the full Senate chamber. 

Senator Kennedy said the bill is “as dead as a fried chicken,” indicating that he did not believe the measure would earn the 60 votes needed to advance on the Senate floor.