Given that it was Justice Kagan who talked about the need for a SCOTUS ethics code well before her peers, her vision on the topic should not be dismissed.
If the justices are going to write their policy preferences into their opinions — as they increasingly are, right and left — they should be constrained by some of the same ethics and tenure guardrails that have been placed on the political branches.
We pored over years of disclosure reports, dug up old articles that mentioned private jet travel and cash prizes and found stories about various plaques, busts and bowls the justices have accepted but often failed to mention in their disclosures.