“I am considering supporting it as a general matter,” she said. “I’m not going to get into commenting on particular policy proposals, but from my perspective, I don’t have any problem with an enforceable code.”
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she is favor of an “enforceable” code of ethics for the Supreme Court. This comes as Democrats have made allegations of wrongdoing against more conservative justices on the court.
Speaking in an interview broadcast on CBS News Sunday Morning, the justice told Norah O’Donnell, “A binding code of ethics is pretty standard for judges, and so I guess the question is: Is the Supreme Court any different? I guess I have not seen a persuasive reason as to why the court is different.”
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View on XJackson did not provide any specifics in the interview but would only say as a “general matter” she supports the idea. “I am considering supporting it as a general matter,” she said. “I’m not going to get into commenting on particular policy proposals, but from my perspective, I don’t have any problem with an enforceable code.”
President Joe Biden has suggested both term limits for justices and a code of ethics could be applied to the court. Jackson made the comments as she talked about Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
“It really boils down to impartiality,” Jackson said of a code of ethics.
The justice also revisited her opposition to the court’s recent ruling acknowledging that a president has legal immunity from official actions committed while in office.
The court’s affirmation of that immunity gave defense to Donald Trump against a series of legal cases that focus on alleged wrongdoing that he committed as president, Politico noted in its summation of the interview.
“I was concerned,” Jackson told O’Donnell, “about a system that appeared to provide immunity for one individual under one set of circumstances, when we have a criminal justice system that had ordinarily treated everyone the same.”
The ruling on presidential immunity has not stopped Special Counsel Jack Smith from reordering his charges of election interference against Trump. A Washington, DC grand jury on Tuesday returned a superseding indictment in the latest development of the case charging Trump with the same four counts he had been charged with over a year ago with another grand jury.
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