12/08/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 12/08/2021 16:41
Washington, DC - Today, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Courts and a leading critic of special interest influence over the federal judiciary, released the following statement on the draft final report of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, which voted to adopt the draft report on Tuesday:
"The final report includes discussion of the weaknesses in transparency and ethics requirements for the justices. I'm pleased to see it point to the need for a stronger ethics regime for the Court. As I and colleagues of both parties have highlighted, the justices are unique among top federal officials in their failure to adopt a code of ethics. That must change.
"However, the verdict on this report remains the same: it misses the point. A reader of these findings comes away with no clue that:
"Right-wing partisan interests have captured the Court, in the same way federal agencies are captured by industry. That capture has cracked the foundations of the Court's credibility and threatens to tear it down altogether.
"This commission served its purpose of killing time for the administration to avoid confronting the deep rot at the Supreme Court. The American people are fast losing confidence in the independence of the Court, and who can blame them? Either we grapple with the Court's very real and very big problems, or, as Justice Sotomayor said, the persistent 'stench' of the Republican majority's partisan decisions will damage this precious institution beyond repair."
Whitehouse has led efforts in the Senate to reveal the special interests seeking to pack the federal judiciary with partisan judges to deliver reliably in those interests' favor. His efforts include Senate Democrats' Captured Courts reports, which Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) shared with the Commission earlier this year.