La commission judiciaire du Sénat a voté aujourd'hui la citation à comparaître d'un riche donateur et d'un acteur de premier plan du pouvoir juridique au cœur des récents scandales d'éthique de la Cour suprême des États-Unis. Ce vote intervient après que la Haute Cour a proposé son propre code de conduite, faible et inapplicable, au début du mois, dans un contexte de critiques croissantes.

The donor, Harlan Crow, reportedly des vacances de luxe proposées aux membres de la Cour suprême qui n'ont jamais été signalés par les juges dans leurs déclarations financières, tandis que Leonard Leo a aidé à organiser certains de ces voyages.

Both men have declined to fully cooperate with requests for information from the Committee.

Déclaration de Marilyn Carpinteyro, coprésidente par intérim de Common Cause

The Senate Judiciary Committee had no choice but to issue subpoenas in the face of stonewalling by Harlan Crow and Leonard Leo – two men at the center of many of the recent scandals to engulf the Supreme Court. The inadequate code of ethics announced by the Supreme Court this month does nothing to change the need for the Committee to get the truth about these scandals and to pass legislation creating a binding and permanent ethics code for the Court.

All of us expect and deserve a Supreme Court that maintains high ethical standards, but several current and former Justices have fallen shamefully short. The Supreme Court is the only court in the nation without a binding code of conduct, and the latest revelations join a long list of scandals that have repeatedly shown the justices cannot police themselves.

La cause commune d'abord a sonné l'alarme sur l'éthique de la Cour suprême more than a decade ago by revealing unreported travel by then-Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas. Our research also revealed that for years Justice Thomas had routinely failed to report les revenus de sa femme, dont une grande partie provient d’organisations hautement politiques et conservatrices.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse deserve credit for holding this accountability vote today and for advancing important legislation earlier this year to create a binding and enforceable code of ethics for the High Court. We hope this long-overdue legislation will be brought to the Senate floor soon, and we strongly encourage every Senator to support the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act.