Courting Disaster

The Continuous Action

The Supreme Court has an ethics problem. The Project on Government Oversight’s Sarah Turberville and David Janovsky join Walt to discuss the need for a code of conduct for the highest court in the United States.

The court’s legitimacy relies on the public’s faith in the institution, and it’s clear the American people believe the court has been politicized. It’s easy to see why. Private, secretive groups spend money on campaigns in support of Supreme Court nominees while justices have accepted lavish gifts from prominent political donors.

The ethics lapses don’t stop there: Justices have no clear rules requiring them to recuse from cases in which they have conflicts of interest, and several justices have inappropriately commented on politics.

There’s one thing that could go a long way in restoring the public’s trust in the Supreme Court: a code of ethics. Sarah Turberville, the director of The Constitution Project at POGO, and David Janovsky, a policy analyst at POGO, talk with Walt about just how problematic it is for the Supreme Court to operate without a code of ethics, and they propose a path forward.

For transcript and show notes, visit: pogo.org/podcasts/the-continuous-action

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