{"id":2022305,"date":"2023-09-05T14:44:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T18:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/samuel-alito-faces-supreme-court-complaint-from-whitehouse-for-panning-ethics-bill\/"},"modified":"2023-09-05T14:45:20","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T18:45:20","slug":"samuel-alito-faces-supreme-court-complaint-from-whitehouse-for-panning-ethics-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/samuel-alito-faces-supreme-court-complaint-from-whitehouse-for-panning-ethics-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Samuel Alito criticized ethics bill, Whitehouse files complaint."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsamuel-alito-faces-supreme-court-complaint-from-whitehouse-for-panning-ethics-bill%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2022305&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Calls for Investigation into Justice Samuel Alito<\/h2>\n<p>Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has called for an investigation into Justice Samuel Alito over his recent comments downplaying Congress&#8217;s \u200dability to impose\u2064 a code of ethics on the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cOn the Senate Judiciary Committee, we have heard in every <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/implicit-bias-is-nothing-but-divisive-junk-science\/\" title=\"\u2018Implicit Bias\u2019 Is Nothing But Divisive Junk Science\">recent confirmation hearing<\/a> that it would be improper to express\u2063 opinions on matters that might come before the Court. In this\u2064 instance, Justice\u200b Alito expressed an opinion on a matter\u2062 that could well come before the Court,\u201d Whitehouse wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Whitehouse\u200c penned a seven-page letter urging Chief Justice John Roberts to &#8220;take whatever steps are necessary&#8221; to \u200cinvestigate Alito following his remarks to the Wall Street Journal that there&#8217;s &#8220;no provision&#8221; in the Constitution giving Congress the authority to regulate the high court.<\/p>\n<h3>Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency\u2063 Act<\/h3>\n<p>Whitehouse introduced the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency\u200b Act in \u2063July, citing \u200ca need to restore the public&#8217;s &#8220;sinking\u200b trust&#8221; in the high court by requiring more detailed\u200b disclosure and transparency\u2064 to address\u2064 &#8220;recusals and conflicts of interest.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Alito told\u2064 the\u200d Wall Street Journal\u2062 on July 28 that he and other justices on the Supreme Court voluntarily follow disclosure statutes that apply to lower court\u200b judges and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-senator-asks-two-biden-cabinet-members-whether-high-ranking-officials-are-using-encrypted-apps-to-cloak-communications\/\" title=\"GOP Senator Asks Two Biden Cabinet Members Whether \u2018High Ranking\u2019 Officials Are Using Encrypted Apps To \u2018Cloak\u2019 Communications\">executive branch officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cCongress did not \u2063create the Supreme Court\u201d\u2014 the Constitution did \u2014 adding, \u201cI know this is a controversial view, but I\u2019m willing to say it. No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court \u200d\u2014 period.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Whitehouse told Roberts in his letter that he felt &#8220;acutely the targeting&#8221; of his bill, saying he considers it &#8220;more than just misguided or accidental general opining. It is directed to my work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Senate Judiciary Committee\u2019s investigation encompasses reports that Justice Alito \u2063accepted\u2063 but did not disclose gifts \u200cof travel and lodging valued in the tens of thousands of dollars,\u201d Whitehouse wrote, likely in reference to the nonprofit outlet ProPublica, which reported about\u200c a one-time fishing trip Alito took to Alaska in 2008, which \u200bwas hosted by hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFurther investigation\u200c may reveal additional information \u2063that Justice Alito would prefer not come to light. The \u200cfacts as already reported suggest that Justice Alito likely\u200d violated the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/john-kerry-financial-disclosures-show-millions-in-income-from-stocks-including-oil-companies\/\" title=\"John Kerry Financial Disclosures Show Millions in Income From Stocks, Including Oil Companies\">financial disclosure requirements<\/a> of the\u2062 Ethics\u200b in Government Act,&#8221; Whitehouse told Roberts.<\/p>\n<p>Alito&#8217;s words in the Wall Street Journal \u200dsought to discredit ProPublica, not by denying the trip with Singer and company, but by arguing the nonprofit &#8220;misleads \u2063its readers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When \u200cI \u200cjoined the Court and until the \u2062recent\u2063 amendment of the \u200cfiling instructions, justices commonly interpreted this discussion of &#8216;hospitality&#8217; to mean that accommodations and transportation for social events were not \u2062reportable gifts,&#8221; Alito said, adding that Singer allowed him to fly aboard his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/samuel-alito-faces-supreme-court-complaint-from-whitehouse-for-panning-ethics-bill\/\" title=\"Samuel Alito criticized ethics bill, Whitehouse files complaint.\">private plane en route<\/a> to Alaska.<\/p>\n<p>Whitehouse declined to ask Roberts to take any specific action on a \u2063proposed ethics code\u200d or against Alito.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/aoc-floats-subpoena-against-supreme-court-justice-roberts\/\" title=\"AOC suggests subpoena for Justice Roberts.\">chief justice declined<\/a> a request from the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Whitehouse is a member \u200dof, to testify before the panel in late April.<\/p>\n<p>Roberts\u2019s letter to committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) explained that testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee \u2063by chief justices has been \u201cexceedingly rare \u2013 as one might expect,\u201d but \u200dattached a &#8220;Statement\u2064 on Ethics Principles and Practices,&#8221; with \u2063the names of all the current justices in his letter declining to\u200d testify.<\/p>\n<h3>Supreme Court&#8217;s\u2063 Efforts for a Code of Conduct<\/h3>\n<p>The Supreme Court has for years been working in private to come up with a novel code of conduct that they can all support, but such work has been stalled due to a lack of congruence among the nine members.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Elena Kagan, one of three\u200b Democratic-appointed justices alongside Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, countered Alito last month during a conference in Oregon, saying she believes Congress &#8220;can\u200d regulate various aspects of what\u200c the Supreme Court does.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM\u2064 THE WASHINGTON\u2063 EXAMINER<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) is demanding an inquiry into Justice Samuel Alito&#8217;s remarks belittling Congress&#8217;s authority to enforce an ethical code on the Supreme Court. Whitehouse has written a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts, urging him to take action and thoroughly investigate Alito&#8217;s comments made to the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2022306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2022305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2022305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2022305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2022306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2022305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2022305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2022305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}