U.S. Supreme Court Adopts Code Of Conduct

After months of controversy, the U.S. Supreme Court has adopted its first-ever Code of Conduct for Justices. Each of the nine Justices agreed to the code and signed on to an accompanying joint statement acknowledging that the absence of such a code has led to "the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules." The code is intended to "dispel this misunderstanding" by codifying the ethics principles the Justices have informally followed in the past.

The code itself is eight pages long and tracks many of the ethics rules already applicable to other federal judges around the country. A substantial portion of the code focuses on recusal procedures for the Justices. Specifically, a Justice should recuse himself or herself "in a proceeding in which the Justice's impartiality might reasonably be questioned." Some examples of such situations include where the Justice or a