'Shocking Series Of Revelations': Dem Senator Amazed By Recent Discoveries About SCOTUS Justices

present I Rise to urge this body to reconsider the objection that was just made by my colleagues the rule of law the system of ordered Liberty for which so many Americans have served and sacrificed at home and abroad is a fragile thing is at times a mere tissue and it is held together by the confidence of our people in the ethics and integrity of Those whom they elect or who are appointed nominated confirmed to serve them we've seen a number of challenging chapters around ethics and integrity in public service recently but tonight we are on this floor to speak about our Supreme Court and a simply shocking series of Revelations about ways in which justices have accepted over years huge amounts of gifts the suggestions been made by a number of my colleagues that this is just Democrats that this is just a partisan attack on a few justices to try and roll back or undermine decisions they've made me dislike or their legitimacy well I can give you a compelling Counterpoint my friend and colleague Senator Corin and I seeing a whole series of stories in the Wall Street Journal in 2021 that revealed that there were were dozens of federal judges who had stockh Holdings in companies where issues before them implicated the value of that company moved us to introduce the bipartisan Courthouse ethics and transparency act your typical Bill takes six seven eight years to become law here in the Senate this one moved faster than almost any other and on the Senate Judiciary Committee and here on the floor of the Senate nobody argued that the Supreme Court needed to be above it all nobody argued that the justices of the Supreme Court shouldn't be required to disclose their stockholdings and be accountable for their failures to recuse or disclose in fact that bill passed unanimously why then is this one not similarly situated every federal judge is subject to a binding code of ethics every Senator virtually every federal employee of a senior decision-making role is bound by a code of ethics that's how the American people know that if there is some slight or fault some self-dealing or some action that creates the appearance of impropriety that action will be taken and after months and months and months of reports of misconduct failure to disclose questionable conduct by a Justice or two of the Supreme Court a recent poll by Marquette shows that a majority of the American people have lost faith in this institution and no longer have confidence in the political Independence and the ethics of our Supreme Court Mr chief justice I hope you listen or watch We believe you to be concerned about the legitimacy of this important institution the Supreme Court is the only federal court not bound by a code of conduct that is enforcable and where these disclosures and their consequences cannot be acted upon the highest court in our land should not have the lowest ethical standards and we should take a vote on this bill the Supreme Court ethics recusal and transparency Act it should not be controversial or partisan this isn't about attacking one Justice or another as someone who clerked for a federal judge as someone who's Chief counsel clerked for a federal judge many of us are lawyers in this body and clerked for federal judges we know the importance of having an independent Judiciary of having a nonpartisan Judiciary and the most powerful court in the land is the Supreme Court when it issued Landmark decisions unanimously it moved the Arc of history today it issues decision after decision that are 54 and that are producing challenging secondary waves in our body poliy if the Supreme Court is to hold the role that our framers intended it must do so above reproach that is not where we are today our Supreme Court must make itself accountable to the American people we shouldn't read disclosure after disclosure in the press to learn about the conduct of the justices just a few moments ago earlier this evening along with the rest of the Delaware delegation I had the honor of meeting with the newest nominees to our nation's service Academy young men and women who are raising the right hand and volunteering to serve our nation who will be granted the opportunity at a free education in exchange for which they sign on the dotted line and agree to go serve our nation at home and abroad and to defend our nation and our constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic I've just completed a trip to the South Pacific where I visited Manila and there there is a World War II Cemetery it includes crosses marking the graves of 177,000 Americans Americans who served and sacrificed in the convulsion that was the second world war those crosses do not mark on them democrat or republican the freedom for which they fought the system of justice the rule of law the Constitution for which they took up arms against Imperial Japan and worked so tirelessly alongside our allies to free a world under assault from Fascism and imperialism did not do so based on a sense of partisan principles but out of a commitment to our nation we should honor those who served and sacrificed in a generation or two ago and those who are willing to serve in sacrifice today going forward by restoring ethics and transparency to the United States Supreme Court they have cast a shameful Shadow not just the appearance of impropriety but a genuine conflict it can be resolved we must help them take the action they should take and resolve it we should pass this bill with that Mr President I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a COR will the senator withhold his request will the senator

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Length: 7min 22sec (442 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2024