# Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act of 2023

This bill would establish new ethics rules and transparency requirements specifically for Supreme Court justices. Right now, the Supreme Court operates under a different set of ethics guidelines than other federal judges, and there's no formal requirement for justices to publicly explain why they recuse themselves (step aside) from cases. This bill would change that by creating clearer standards about when justices should remove themselves from cases and requiring them to explain their decisions to the public.

The main changes would require justices to disclose financial interests, gifts, and travel arrangements more thoroughly than they currently do. When a justice decides to recuse themselves from a case, they would have to provide a written explanation of their reasoning. The bill would also establish guidelines about what kinds of situations should prompt a justice to step aside—for example, if they have a financial stake in a case's outcome or if they have a close relationship with someone involved in the case. These are standards that already apply to lower court judges, but the Supreme Court has largely operated on an honor system where justices decide for themselves whether to recuse without public explanation.

The bill aims to increase public confidence in the Supreme Court by making its decision-making process more transparent and holding justices to similar ethical standards as other judges. Critics of the current system argue that without these requirements, it's impossible for the public to know whether justices are making decisions based on the law or on personal interests. Supporters of the current system counter that justices are experienced enough to police themselves and that adding these requirements could interfere with judicial independence. Either way, this bill would fundamentally change how the Supreme Court operates and how much information Americans can access about why justices make the decisions they do.

Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act of 2023

Whitehouse, Sheldon

Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act of 2023 This bill makes various changes related to the ethical standards, financial disclosure requirements, and recusal requirements that apply to Supreme Court Justices. Among the changes, the bill requires the Supreme Court to <ul type="disc"> <li>adopt a code of conduct for Justices and establish procedures to receive and investigate complaints of judicial misconduct;</li> <li>adopt rules governing the disclosure of gifts, travel, and income received by the Justices and law clerks that are at least as rigorous as the House and Senate disclosure rules; and </li> <li>establish procedural rules requiring each party or amicus to disclose any gift, income, or reimbursement provided to Justices. </li> </ul> Additionally, the bill <ul type="disc"> <li>expands the circumstances under which a Justice or judge must be disqualified; and </li> <li>requires the Supreme Court and the Judicial Conference to establish procedural rules for prohibiting the filing of or striking an amicus brief that would result in the disqualification of a Justice, judge, or magistrate judge. </li></ul>