Following today’s New York Times story on the discussion among the justices about ethics enforcement proposals at SCOTUS, Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth released this statement:

“The justices described in the article as being opposed to adding an enforcement mechanism to their ethics code each lived under such a framework when they served on the lower courts — Justice Thomas for a little over a year, Justice Alito for nearly 16 years and Justice Gorsuch for close to 11 years. So their mewls of opposition are overstated.

“Without an enforcement mechanisms in the lower courts, it’s likely that many judges ill-equipped to maintain their posts would still be judging. The names Kozinski, Murguia, Kindred, Smith, Cebull and Kent come to mind. None of the nine to my knowledge has committed similar offenses, but if one does one day, the institution must be equipped to handle it.

“As far as SCOTUS critics being ‘unappeasable,’ that couldn’t be further from the truth. If the justices put cameras in their courtroom, retired after 18 years, adopted stronger gift and conflict-of-interest rules and created a complaints process, I’d be appeased. Each of these policies exists elsewhere in the judiciary or in another branch, so they wouldn’t be difficult to implement.”

“We’re not asking for the world. We’re asking for some reflection and the acknowledgement that people are terrible at understanding their own biases. Critics of enforcement appear either to be practicing justice-worship or are worried about what an honest investigation might turn up.”