A top goal at Fix the Court is to explain why, given the immense power of our federal courts, sometimes for good though often not, the judiciary requires at least the same level of scrutiny as the other branches.

We believe we’ve been successful at making the case.

One example comes from a new poll we worked on with Data for Progress in which 1,215 Americans were asked:

Q: Which of the following comes closer to your view?
➜ Federal judges and Supreme Court justices should be free to police their own conduct, or
➜ Federal judges and Supreme Court justices should be required to follow the same ethics rules as members of CongressThe results were not close: Democrats (91%-9%), Independents (86%-14%) and Republicans (78%-22%) agree that judges and justices should be required to follow the same ethics rules as federal lawmakers.

See the crosstabs here.

The public understands that a branch of government with as much power as the judiciary requires the same types of guardrails that exist in the other branches.

Though government corruption is on the rise these days, we cannot not ignore the shortcomings in the third branch — from its inability to protect staff from harassment to its disdain for the travel and gift rules that apply to Congress. That must change.