(WatchDogReport.org) – On June 12, Republican senators blocked a bill from the Democratic Party that would have imposed a binding ethics code on justices of the United States Supreme Court.
South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham led the Republican effort to block the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, as he argued that it was nothing more than an “unconstitutional overreach.” He added that the bill would affect the Supreme Court’s ability to keep operating “effectively.”
Some of the Republican senators who supported Graham were Louisiana’s John Kennedy and Utah’s Mike Lee. During a press conference, Kennedy told reporters that he believed that the bill proposed by Senate Democrats had more to do with “abortion” rather than “ethics.” He also suggested that Democrats pushed the bill because they are still angry about the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The Democratic senator who championed the legislation was Illinois’ Dick Durbin, who is also the Senate’s Judiciary Committee chair. He said in a statement that the bill should be approved as the Supreme Court shouldn’t have low “ethical standards.” The legislation proposed that the court justices had to improve some disclosure rules for gifts and recusal, as well as establish numerous mechanisms to investigate violations and adopt mandatory ethical guidelines.
During a press conference, Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal claimed that the Supreme Court has wasted its “mystical authority” because of decisions and scandals surrounding some justices. He also explained that the legislation was necessary to improve the court’s ethical standards.
While Durbin said that the vote to pass the bill shouldn’t be a “partisan issue,” Graham claimed that the bill would have negative consequences for the Supreme Court, which was the reason senators had to reject it. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader and New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer expressed his anger over the blockade, suggesting that the court’s “Reputation” was at a historic low. He also said he was going to discuss the next steps to take with Durbin.
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