McConnell blasts Democrats’ efforts to ‘smear and defame’ conservative justices
Kaelan Deese
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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) defended Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas by name, adding that they and the rest of the justices exhibit “high ethical standards” amid Democratic scrutiny of the court’s ethical standards.
McConnell said that a three-page statement signed by all nine justices vowing to follow “foundational ethics principles and practices,” while suggesting there’s no need for a formal code of conduct sought by Democrats, is sufficient. That statement was tied to a Tuesday letter from Chief Justice John Roberts, who refused a call by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) to testify on court ethics before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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“Let me just repeat that I have total confidence in Justice Gorsuch, Justice Thomas, and all seven of their distinguished colleagues, no matter who appointed them,” McConnell said, lambasting what he called “never-ending attempts to smear and defame justices appointed by Republican presidents going back years and decades.”
The investigative outlet ProPublica revealed earlier this month that Thomas for years has taken lavish trips with Dallas-based GOP donor Harlan Crow and later surfaced an undisclosed real estate transaction between the justice and Crow. And this week, Politico reported that Gorsuch didn’t disclose the name of the buyer of a piece of property he sold before his confirmation in 2017, which happened to be the CEO of a major firm with business before the court.
But McConnell argued that unlike “activists and elected Democrats trying to tear them down, the justices have proven their sobriety and their judicial temperament over their long and distinguished careers.”
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The Republican majority leader’s comments signal there will likely be little action in Congress to impose a heightened ethics code on the justices, since some GOP support is needed to move the legislation through the Senate.
Durbin said he was “surprised” by Roberts declining the request to testify, saying the “chief justice’s recounting of existing legal standards of ethics suggests current law is adequate and ignores the obvious.”