FTC’s Gabe Roth released this statement:

“By all accounts, and for obvious reasons, 2023 was the most important year for judicial ethics in decades.

“But it’s incumbent upon the justices in 2024 not simply to hope that questions surrounding their conduct die out — they won’t — but to make pronounced improvements in transparency and accountability.

“That’s especially true since the Court will be deciding such critical issues in the months to come, and it can’t afford to lose any more of the public’s trust.”

More prescriptively, FTC recently published “What Should Be Next: Simple Fixes to the Lackluster Ethics Code.”

The suggestions are: (1) creating a complaints inbox; (2) hiring an ethics counsel to give justices consistent advice on conduct questions; (3) establishing an ethics committee to look at best practices in other courts; (4) requiring the use of conflict-check software; and (5) confirming that the nine are completing annual ethics training. Greater detail on these is here.

If you’re interested in reading over what we believe to be FTC’s biggest successes and the biggest let-downs of the year, check out this post, with compliments to FTC’s team of interns, without whom much of the good stuff wouldn’t have happened.

We have more in store for 2024 — stay tuned!