The Curious Lawyer: Ethics Crisis at the Supreme Court?

This ethics program looks at the Supreme Court and the double standards it employs in ethics rules and guardrails. Sampling left and right leaning justices so ethics scrutiny is fairly brought against all, the program traces the history of ethics regulation of judges, looks at the current ethics codes, and looks specifically at case studies between lower court judges that are found to have tripped ethics lines, but then comparing those ethics case studies to our Supreme Court justices who do not face the same enforceable ethics standards. In one case, the Supreme Court found a lower court judge to have so tripped ethics lines that he violated due process in a case, but then in a similar case when the tables are turned the Supreme Court justices do not even need to recuse themselves. Given the bipartisan crisis in the court, the program looks at pending potential ethics reforms in both Congress as well as interviews with Justice Kagan and an examination of the Supreme Court’s argument that it can be trusted to be left alone.