Can we demand an ethical standard for government?

A common sense act has been introduced in congress, HR 926, asking for basic ethical requirements for the Supreme Court. It sounds like something that ought to be in place.

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:

adopt a code of conduct for Justices and establish procedures to receive and investigate complaints of judicial misconduct;

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

establish procedural rules requiring each party or amicus to disclose any gift, income, or reimbursement provided to Justices.

Additionally, the bill expands the circumstances under which a Justice or judge must be disqualified; and

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.

That’s excellent, and there’s a push to get everyone to call up your state representative to support this bill.

I agree with the bill, BUT…

I have no hope.

The fascists take over the government in January, and they’ll kill this bill. They already have. It was introduced in February of 2023, and it’s gone nowhere. Are we supposed to expect a miracle in the next two months?

I have another problem. If you actually go to the site promoted in that image, the first thing you will see is a plea for donations. It’s all about money. They also ask for your phone number, which I’ll never give out again. I made a donation to the Harris campaign months ago, and they passed my number to other organizations, so I was getting dozens of text messages every goddamned day. They all had a stop code you could send to end the noise, but I discovered that they honored it in name only. The organization I requested to stop would stop, but then they’d pass my number to a different, related organization, and the texts would continue. “Retired Democrats 2024”? “Blue Battleground Project”? “GenBlue PAC”? I didn’t sign up for any of those, and somehow they got my number. I don’t trust Democratic fundraisers.

Maybe we should start by demanding an ethical standard for all political organizations?

I know this is a mixed message. I think putting an ethical standard on the Supreme Court is important, but the Democrats are proving themselves venal and ineffectual.