Press Releases
SCOTUS Corruption Crisis Grows with Continued Drip of Scandals
Crisis reaches fever pitch with new revelations, underscoring need for reform
WASHINGTON, DC – In the month since Justice Clarence Thomas’s decades-worth of undisclosed luxury travel and gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow turned all eyes to the Supreme Court, a continued drip of scandals — involving new players from Ginni Thomas to Jane Roberts — has deepened the Court’s corruption crisis. What next?
We can’t afford to sit back and watch as this corruption crisis causes public trust in the Supreme Court to plummet. Right now, our nation’s highest Court has no ethics code. It’s clear that that must change — and Chief Justice Roberts has the power to make it happen, but so far he hasn’t shown the courage. Whether by Roberts or Congress, we need urgent reform to restore credibility and integrity to our Court.”
Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig.
New reporting this week from Insider highlighted the extensive anti-abortion work of Jane Roberts’ — wife of Chief Justice Roberts — with Feminists for Life, which filed several anti-abortion amicus briefs with the Supreme Court prior to Roberts’ involvement. In light of the steady string of Supreme Court corruption scandals, Jane Roberts’ anti-abortion work underscores the need for increased transparency for arrangements that could call justices’ impartiality into question.
Previously, the Washington Post unveiled conservative kingpin Leonard Leo as the architect of a plan to pay Ginni Thomas tens of thousands of dollars, raising serious ethical and legal questions.
Accountable.US has repeatedly called for action regarding the unprecedented ethics issues undermining the integrity of our nation’s highest court. Following the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Supreme Court ethics reform, Accountable.US released new research revealing Republican members on the Committee have accepted nearly half a million dollars in campaign contributions from Harlan Crow himself. Accountable.US also pressured Chief Justice Roberts to take action with a mobile billboard campaign near the Capitol Building and around Roberts’ Chevy Chase country club. Accountable.US will continue to push for urgent reform in response to the growing Supreme Court corruption crisis.
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