Justice Alito: Congress lacks ‘authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period’

WASHINGTON — Justice Samuel Alito says Congress lacks the ability to impose a code of ethics on the Supreme Court, making him the primary member of the courtroom to take a public stand towards proposals in Congress to toughen ethics guidelines for justices in response to elevated scrutiny of their actions past the bench.

“I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court — period,” Alito stated in an interview he gave to the Wall Street Journal opinion pages. An account of the interview was revealed Friday.

The interview occurred in New York in early July, the paper stated. Last week, Democrats pushed Supreme Court ethics laws by a Senate committee, although the invoice’s prospects within the full Senate are dim.

Democrats first proposed laws after ProPublica reported earlier this 12 months that Justice Clarence Thomas participated in lavish holidays and an actual property cope with a prime Republican donor – and after Chief Justice John Roberts declined to testify earlier than the committee in regards to the ethics of the courtroom.

Since then, ProPublica additionally revealed that Alito had taken a luxurious trip in Alaska with a Republican donor who had enterprise pursuits earlier than the courtroom. The Associated Press reported in early July that Justice Sonia Sotomayor, aided by her workers, has superior gross sales of her books by school visits over the previous decade.

The 73-year-old Alito, who joined the courtroom in 2006, has rejected the concept he ought to have disclosed the Alaska journey or stepped away from instances involving the donor, hedge fund proprietor Paul Singer. Alito penned his personal Wall Street Journal op-ed, which was revealed hours earlier than ProPublica posted its story.

Alito stated that he’s unwilling to go away allegations unanswered, although he famous acknowledged judges and justices usually don’t reply to their critics.

“And so at a certain point I’ve said to myself, nobody else is going to do this, so I have to defend myself,” he stated within the latest column.

While no different justice has spoken so definitively about ethics laws, Roberts has raised questions on Congress’ authority to supervise the excessive courtroom.

In his year-end report in 2011, Roberts wrote that the justices adjust to laws that requires annual monetary disclosures and limits their outdoors earned revenue. “The Court has never addressed whether Congress may impose those requirements on the Supreme Court. The Justices nevertheless comply with those provisions,” Roberts wrote.

The justices have to this point resisted adopting an ethics code on their very own, though Roberts stated in May that there’s extra the courtroom can do to “adhere to the highest standards” of moral conduct, with out offering specifics.

The column is co-written by James Taranto, the paper’s editorial options editor, and David Rivkin, a Washington lawyer. Rivkin represents Leonard Leo, the onetime chief of the conservative authorized group The Federalist Society, in his dealings with Senate Democrats who need particulars of Leo’s dealings with the justices. Leo helped organize Alito’s journey to Alaska.

Rivkin, in a letter Tuesday to main Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, stated the request was politically motivated and violates Leo’s constitutional rights. Rivkin additionally wrote {that a} congressionally imposed ethics code for the Supreme Court would falter on constitutional grounds. Separately, Rivkin represents a pair whose tax case might be argued earlier than the courtroom within the fall.