Judicial ethics in the spotlight

Sen. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, has reintroduced “a trio of bills that would crack down on conflicts of interest and allow public records requests into the federal judiciary, as part of a push to increase transparency in the federal courts,” according to Bloomberg Law. “Two of the bills aim to prevent Supreme Court justices and lower court judges from handling litigation in which they have a financial interest. The measures would expand conflicts of interest rules that apply to the executive branch to the judiciary and require justices and judges to put certain financial assets in a blind trust.” “The Democrat-led bills face slim odds of passage in the Republican-controlled Congress,” but they add to an already active debate over “strengthening ethics rules for the judiciary.” Bloomberg Law noted that “[l]awmakers pressed Justices Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett on the high court ethics code during the justices’ appearances before House and Senate spending committee panels on July 14.”