The United States Supreme Court revealed what some justices touted as a landmark new ethics code last year.
But critics noted that the scandal-plagued institution’s new rules lacked any enforcement mechanisms, making them essentially a 14-page long list of suggestions.
A new leak of secret discussions from behind the bench, published in The New York Times Tuesday, reveals which justices fought to keep the code of conduct toothless.
The Times reported that the court’s nine justices started passing ultra-confidential memos, kept in paper envelopes and off email servers, back and forth at the end of last summer.
The court’s three liberal justices—Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson—all advocated for some form of enforcement
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The justices however gave themselves a broad carve-out for book deals and sales. Justice Sotomayor, who received $3.7 million for her memoir and her children’s books, came under fire for using court staff for her book events after being appointed to the court in 2009. Now, justices have explicit permission to use staff for such endeavors.
The code states that justices should not be “swayed by partisan interests.”
“These new rules are more loophole than law,” wrote Michael Waldman, the president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law, after the final document, signed by all nine justices, was released last year.
