Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has blasted the Supreme Court’s new ethics code for one “glaring omission”: a specific recusal requirement for any justice involved in a criminal investigation into a sitting president.
On Friday, the Supreme Court released a new “Code of Conduct for United States Supreme Court Justices,” which will go into effect on May 1, 2021. The updated code includes several revisions and new distinctions, most notably the formal establishment of a single chief justice to handle all judicial related misconduct.
Though Schumer praised the revised code for its “cross-cutting ethos of transparency and accountability,” he noted that the lack of any specific language dealing directly with potential conflicts of interest for justices involved in investigations of sitting presidents is “critical piece that’s merely overlooked.”
In an official statement, Senator Schumer asserted that the absence of any “substantive recusal requirements for justices implicated in criminal investigations of a sitting President raises flagrant concerns about the impartiality and fairness of Supreme Court decisions.”
He went on to say that it is not the Supreme Court’s place to “handpick the outcomes” of criminal investigations, and that justices should not be participating in or delivering verdicts on matters pertaining to ongoing investigations.
Schumer concluded his statement by reiterating that the “omission of clear recusal requirements leaves too much ambiguity surrounding the ethical conflicts of American’s highest court. As such, this glaring omission should be explicitly addressed.
Ultimately, Senator Schumer’s criticism indicates a possible Congressional effort to pass a law that will explicitly and concretely address the recusal requirements of Supreme Court justices involved in criminal investigations of sitting presidents. This speaks to the true intention of the Supreme Court’s ethics code: the necessity for accountability for all members of our judiciary.