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.
The types of freebies Supreme Court justices have received — private plane travel, stays at luxury accommodations, a vehicle and more — are popping up on lower-court judges' disclosures.
Six years ago, Chief Justice Roberts said about the Supreme Court, "We're the most transparent branch in terms us explaining what we're doing." If that was true then (it wasn't), it definitely isn't now given the rise in the justices' use of unsigned orders to make monumental changes to our laws and national policy.