Chief Justice John Roberts was a no-show at Tuesday's hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on potential Supreme Court ethics reform. Nor were any of the eight other justices present. None of this was a surprise, as Roberts declined the invitation from committee chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in writing last week.
In that letter, Roberts cited the separation of powers as barring his attendance but attached a "Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices" that all nine justices had signed. Ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., framed this on Tuesday as the justices all agreeing fully with the content of Roberts' letter and rejecting the idea that congressional oversight was at all appropriate.
This is at best a stretch of what Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson intended with their signatures; at worst, it is a sign that even the three "liberal" justices are willing to place the Supreme Court's consolidation of power above any ideological disagreements with their colleagues.
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