{"id":2309485,"date":"2024-07-26T12:24:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T16:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2309485"},"modified":"2024-07-26T12:29:52","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T16:29:52","slug":"kagan-says-supreme-court-needs-mechanism-to-enforce-ethics-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kagan-says-supreme-court-needs-mechanism-to-enforce-ethics-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Kagan says Supreme Court needs \u2018mechanism\u2019 to enforce ethics &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/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%2Fkagan-says-supreme-court-needs-mechanism-to-enforce-ethics-washington-examiner%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=2309485&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--><p>At a judicial conference in \u2062Sacramento, California, Supreme Court Justice\u200c Elena Kagan advocated for the creation of a mechanism to enforce an ethics code for justices. Kagan mentioned discussions with Chief Justice John \u2064Roberts about establishing a panel of respected judges \u2064to oversee this enforcement,\u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-pushes-gun-control-and-decries-banning-books-in-july-4-message-to-teachers-union\/\" title=\"Biden advocates for gun control and opposes &#039;book bans&#039; in July 4 message to teachers union.\">addressing concerns raised<\/a> by lawmakers \u200band\u2062 advocacy groups\u200d about potential ethical conflicts involving justices, particularly Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Although the Supreme Court follows the same ethics guidelines as lower federal judges, there has been increasing pressure from Democrats for a more enforceable system, including \u2064support for the proposed\u2063 Judicial Ethics Enforcement Act. Despite Kagan&#8217;s push for an \u200cenforcement mechanism, not all justices agree; Alito argued that \u2064Congress cannot regulate the Supreme Court due to constitutional limitations. Kagan noted that rules generally include enforcement measures, highlighting a \u200dsignificant gap in the current ethics code. Discussions about these reforms are ongoing amidst broader\u2063 conversations about\u200b accountability in the judiciary.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Kagan says Supreme Court needs &lsquo;mechanism&rsquo; to enforce ethics<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1714443\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/supreme-court\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Supreme Court<\/a> Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/elena-kagan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Elena Kagan<\/a> supports creating a novel &ldquo;mechanism&rdquo; that would provide the means for an enforceable ethics code for the nine justices, she said at a judicial conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the conference in Sacramento, California, the appointee of former President Barack Obama said she had spoken to Chief Justice John Roberts about the prospects of forming a panel of judges to help enforce the ethics code they adopted in November, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.bloomberglaw.com\/us-law-week\/elena-kagan-endorses-supreme-court-ethics-enforcement-mechanism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>according<\/a> to <em>Bloomberg<\/em>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan sits on a panel at the 2024 9th Circuit Judicial Conference in Sacramento, California, on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo\/Rich Pedroncelli)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Kagan described the hypothetical enforcement arm as &ldquo;some sort of committee of highly respected judges with a great deal of experience and a reputation for fairness.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Although Kagan acknowledged the difficulties in deciding who should be in charge of enforcing ethics on the highest court in the land, she said she felt &ldquo;we could and should try to figure out some mechanism for doing this&rdquo; in response to a moderator&rsquo;s question at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit&rsquo;s annual conference.<\/p>\n<p>The recent adoption of an ethics code was a multifaceted decision, one that had been considered by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/justice-breyers-final-a-few-months-on-scotus-dominated-by-abortion-and-guns-cases\/\" title=\"Justice Breyer\u2019s Final A few months on SCOTUS Dominated by Abortion and Guns Cases\">high court justices<\/a> for years. It also came at a time when Democrats and nonprofit investigative outlets were raising concerns over purported ethics conflicts by Republican-appointed Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.&nbsp;There has been no proof that any gifts or lavish travel opportunities the justices received from third parties in years past have influenced the justices&rsquo; decisions from the bench.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the Supreme Court following the same ethics guidelines that are enforceable on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-will-adopt-an-ethics-code\/\" title=\"Supreme Court will adopt an ethics code\">lower court federal judges<\/a>, Democratic lawmakers and progressive organizations have aggressively called for a means to enforce the code the justices recently adopted. In April, Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) were among a group of Democrats to throw support behind a proposed Judicial Ethics Enforcement Act, which would <a href=\"https:\/\/omar.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/repsomar-raskin-and-stansbury-push-supreme-court-accountability-new#:~:text=Specifically%2C%20the%20Judicial%20Ethics%20Enforcement,Court%20of%20the%20United%20States.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>create<\/a> an Office of the Inspector General within the federal judiciary and allow it to &ldquo;conduct investigations of alleged violations of the Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>But not every justice thinks an enforceable ethics code would be wise. Last July, Alito said in an interview with the <em>Wall Street Journal <\/em>that Congress lacks the ability to create legislation on this matter, arguing no &ldquo;provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court &mdash; period.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>During her discussion at the conference this week, Kagan said one thing that can be criticized about the current code is its lack of enforceable measures.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Rules usually have enforcement mechanisms attached to them, and this set of rules does not,&rdquo; Kagan said at the meeting of federal judges and lawyers.<\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s not immediately clear how far the talks between Kagan and Roberts about an enforceable ethics code have gone. Her comments also came after recent reports indicating that President Joe Biden is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/presidential\/3098344\/biden-supreme-court-reform-plan-appears-at-standstill\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>considering a proposal<\/a> for judiciary reforms, although White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she did not have any &ldquo;policy announcements to make&rdquo; this week.<\/p>\n<p>Kagan&rsquo;s remarks followed a tumultuous high court term in which the justices ruled in major cases, such as one that dealt a blow to the administrative state by overturning the <em>Chevron<\/em> doctrine, which for decades told courts to defer to agencies when a regulatory statute was otherwise ambiguously written by Congress.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kagan also hit out on a recent pattern of justices writing separate opinions below majority decisions, such as in a recent case known as<em> United States<\/em> <em>v. Rahimi<\/em>, a ruling that upheld a federal gun statute barring domestic violence offenders under a civil restraining order from possessing a gun.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Everybody sort of tries to spin it one way or another,&rdquo; Kagan said. &ldquo;Often people use separate opinions to pre-decide issues that aren&rsquo;t properly before the court, and that may come before the court in a year or two and try to give signals as to how lower courts should decide that, which I don&rsquo;t think is right.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1714443\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1714443\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan advocates for the establishment of a new &#8220;mechanism&#8221; to enforce an ethics code for the nine justices, as she stated during a judicial conference on Thursday. At the event in Sacramento, California, Kagan, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, mentioned that she had discussed the possibility of forming a panel of judges with Chief Justice John Roberts to help uphold the ethics code adopted in November, according to Bloomberg. Kagan described this potential enforcement body as &#8220;some sort of committee of highly respected judges with extensive experience and a reputation for fairness.&#8221; While she recognized the challenges in determining who would oversee ethics enforcement at the Supreme Court, she expressed a desire to &#8220;try to figure out some mechanism for doing this&#8221; in response to a question from a moderator at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit&#8217;s annual conference. The recent implementation of an ethics code was a complex decision that had been under consideration by the justices for years, coinciding with growing concerns from Democrats and nonprofit investigative organizations regarding alleged ethical conflicts involving Republican-appointed Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. Although there is no evidence that past gifts or extravagant travel received by the justices have influenced their judicial decisions, Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups have been vocal in their calls for a way to enforce the newly adopted code. In April, Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) supported a proposed Judicial Ethics Enforcement Act, which would establish an Office of the Inspector General within the federal judiciary to investigate alleged violations of the Supreme Court&#8217;s Code of Conduct. However, not all justices agree that an enforceable ethics code is advisable. Last July, Alito stated in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that Congress does not have the authority to legislate on this issue, claiming that no constitutional provision grants them the power to regulate the Supreme Court. During her remarks at the conference, Kagan pointed out that a significant criticism of the current ethics code is its lack of enforceable provisions, stating, &#8220;Rules usually have enforcement mechanisms attached to them, and this set of rules does not.&#8221; It remains unclear how advanced the discussions between Kagan and Roberts regarding an enforceable ethics code are. Her comments also followed reports suggesting that President Joe Biden is contemplating judicial reforms, although White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre indicated there were no immediate policy announcements. Kagan&#8217;s statements came after a challenging term for the Supreme Court, during which the justices made significant rulings, including one that overturned the Chevron doctrine, which had guided courts to defer to agencies in cases of ambiguous regulatory statutes. Kagan also criticized the trend of justices issuing separate opinions alongside majority decisions, as seen in the recent United States v. Rahimi case, which upheld a federal gun law prohibiting domestic violence offenders under civil restraining orders from possessing firearms. She remarked, &#8220;Everybody sort of tries to spin it one way or another,&#8221; and noted that separate opinions are sometimes used to preemptively address issues that may come before the court in the future, which she believes is inappropriate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2633,"featured_media":2309491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/AP24207738847277.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[4381,11028,33211,32275,32076],"class_list":["post-2309485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner","tag-ethics","tag-kagan","tag-legal-news","tag-supreme-court","tag-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/AP24207738847277.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309485","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\/2633"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2309485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2309491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2309485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2309485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2309485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}