{"id":36162,"date":"2024-09-14T13:30:36","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T20:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=36162"},"modified":"2024-09-14T13:30:36","modified_gmt":"2024-09-14T20:30:36","slug":"elena-kagan-keeps-pressing-for-ethics-code-enforcement-at-supreme-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/09\/14\/elena-kagan-keeps-pressing-for-ethics-code-enforcement-at-supreme-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Elena Kagan keeps pressing for ethics code enforcement at Supreme Court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The justice also discussed long-term consequences of the court\u2019s abortion ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Elena<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even as Justice Elena Kagan leaned into her call for an enforcement mechanism, she retreated from a suggestion she made last year that Congress\u2019 power to dictate ethics rules for the court was well established. | Rich Pedroncelli\/AP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By JOSH GERSTEIN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

09\/09\/2024 05:25 PM EDT (Politico.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Justice Elena Kagan is keeping up her public drive for an enforcement mechanism for the Supreme Court\u2019s ethics code despite strident criticism from some voices on the right and skepticism about it among some legal ethics scholars<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt seems like a good idea in terms of ensuring that we comply with our own code of conduct going forward in the future. It seems like a good idea in terms of ensuring that people have confidence that we\u2019re doing exactly that,\u201d Kagan said during an appearance Monday at New York University School of Law. \u201cSo, it seems like a salutary thing for the court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kagan effusively praised the ethics code the high court adopted last November<\/a> under intense pressure from Democratic lawmakers that followed a series of press reports about undisclosed gifts to some of her colleagues and behind-the-scenes efforts to influence the justices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a good ethics code,\u201d Kagan said, adding that some departures from rules for lower-court judges were justified by the Supreme Court\u2019s unique role atop the judicial branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Kagan also defended her call \u2014 first issued at a judicial conference in California in July<\/a> \u2014 for an external enforcement mechanism that could be overseen by retired or highly experienced judges. She scoffed at the notion that such a panel would be too deferential to the justices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJudges \u2026 they\u2019re not so afraid of us,\u201d Kagan said. \u201cI think that that\u2019s in the picking, basically. And I think that there are plenty of judges around this country who could do a task like that in a very fair minded and serious way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Obama appointee also said she did not think such a mechanism would produce a flurry of frivolous allegations against the justices. The panel charged with enforcement could sort out meritless allegations, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kagan did not say whether her colleagues have privately discussed an enforcement regime or where they stand on it, although Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said in a recent interview<\/a> that she was open to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kagan also declined to address a report in ProPublica<\/a> that the the head of a conservative group that regularly brings cases to the high court, Kelly Shackelford of the First Liberty Institute, described earlier comments by Kagan on the subject as \u201csomewhat treasonous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kagan joked that the description sounded akin to being \u201csomewhat pregnant,\u201d but wouldn\u2019t address it directly. \u201cI don\u2019t want to dignify it any further,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shackelford wrote to Kagan Monday apologizing for the comment, First Liberty spokesperson Hiram Sasser said. \u201cKelly sent a letter saying he should not have assumed she was inviting other branches to control the court and he should not have used that word,\u201d Sasser said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as Kagan leaned into her call for the justices to adopt an enforcement mechanism, she did not repeat a suggestion she made last year that Congress\u2019 power to dictate ethics rules for the court was well established<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan Congress do various things to regulate the Supreme Court? I think the answer is: yes,\u201d she told a judicial conference in Oregon last summer. Her comment was a riposte to Justice Samuel Alito, who has said the Constitution didn\u2019t give Congress power to dictate the court\u2019s ethics processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, Kagan said she was steering clear of commenting on Congress\u2019 power. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say anything about that because, you know, one day, who knows, I might have to decide a case involving that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kagan didn\u2019t explain or acknowledge the shift, but in July President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris \u2014 who is the Democratic presidential nominee \u2014 endorsed the notion of a law imposing an externally-enforced ethics code for the high court<\/a>, as well as term limits for justices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    During an hourlong on-stage interview at a luncheon for a women\u2019s legal leadership center, NYU Professor Melissa Murray asked Kagan about future consequences of the Supreme Court\u2019s 2022 decision overturning the federal constitutional right to abortion<\/a>. Justice Clarence Thomas suggested at the time that precedents guaranteeing rights to contraception and same-sex marriage might also someday be overturned under the same legal rationale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThis analysis that you\u2019ve just applied to abortion \u2026 it applies to a lot of other things,\u201d said Kagan, who dissented from the court\u2019s far-reaching abortion ruling two years ago. \u201cJust as a matter of logic, that point is true,\u201d the justice added, although she stopped short of saying whether she thought the high court would move toward repealing those other rights anytime soon, or ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Kagan also shared some details about the justices\u2019 private pastimes, including that one topic of behind-the-scenes chatter at the court is golf. \u201cJustice Kavanaugh is a good golfer and the chief justice is a good golfer,\u201d Kagan said, adding that Chief Justice John Roberts\u2019 wife, Jane Roberts, is \u201cvery good, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Kagan said the shared interest in golf contributes to the court\u2019s camaraderie, but should only matter to the public if it leads the justices to more give-and-take with their colleagues about the court\u2019s official business<\/a>. On that score, she was more opaque, saying: \u201cThe proof is in the pudding, right?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The justice also discussed long-term consequences of the court\u2019s abortion ruling. Even as Justice Elena Kagan leaned into her call for an enforcement mechanism, she retreated from a suggestion she made last year that Congress\u2019 power to dictate ethics rules for the court was well established. | Rich Pedroncelli\/AP By JOSH… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36163,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36162\/revisions\/36163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}