Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly stated that she thinks a code of ethics for justices of the Supreme Court should exist and be upheld.
The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee expressed her displeasure with the recent scandals surrounding the Supreme Court and called for more stringent rules to be placed on and enforced on the justices while speaking at the second annual Vital Voices Festival organized by Vital Voices, an international nonprofit organization co-founded by Clinton and focused on women’s rights worldwide.
“Why should they be the only institution in the United States without a code of ethics that is enforceable? … And they have a lifetime appointment. So, of course, there should be ethical standards, and they should carry some weight.” Clinton said.
“Of course, there should be ethical standards, and they should carry some weight because [of] the daily revelations about what has gone on, particularly with Justice Thomas, but a few others as well. And they should be nonpartisan, not just bipartisan, nonpartisan. They should be a set of standards, and people should be held to them.” she continued.
Clinton stated that the Supreme Court should establish an effective code of ethics for its judges in light of the current problems involving Justice Clarence Thomas.
Since ProPublica’s revelation that Harlan Crow, a wealthy Dallas-based Republican donor, paid for Thomas to take trips and vacations, purchased a home owned by Thomas’s family, and covered the costs of the justice’s grandnephew’s private school tuition, Thomas and the Supreme Court have come under intense scrutiny.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Chief Justice John Roberts may have had a conflict of interest while serving on the bench, it was recently found.
Bipartisan proposals for stronger ethical regulations for the judges and their families have been made in Congress as a result of the crises involving the Supreme Court.
Clinton also used the occasion to speak out against recent laws passed in conservative states designed to protect the lives of unborn children.
“The kind of draconian measures that are being passed in a number of states that are right out of Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale. You can’t even imagine the United States in 2023 and the kind of almost punitive measures that are being put on women’s lives and choices.” Clinton declared angrily.
[READ MORE: Planned Parenthood to Unleash New Attack on DeSantis’s Pro-Life Law]
