The first few weeks of 2025 have made the urgent need for ethics reform at the Supreme Court painfully clear. First there was the decision by the Judicial Conference to pass on investigating multiple questionable actions by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Then, Justice Samuel Alito made the curious decision to take a call from the president-elect as Donald Trump’s emergency appeal was barreling toward the court.
As has been well-reported, there is a long list of apparent ethical failings by certain members of the court over the last two years — mostly Justice Thomas but also Justices Alito and Sonia Sotomayor. The reports have been shocking: luxury yacht vacations, salmon fishing in Alaska, private plane travel, a recreational vehicle, private school tuition, use of court staff to help sell books, and more. Not surprisingly, public respect for the courts is plunging. A recently published Gallup survey found that public confidence in America’s courts is down by 24% from 2020, to a historic low of 35%.
