Courts

Elizabeth Warren Wants To Be Able To Go After Brett Kavanaugh (And Alex Kozinski And Maryanne Trump Barry Too)

A plan for judicial ethics? You don't say.

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(Photo by Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images)

The ethics rules that govern Federal judges are kinda a mess, and Elizabeth Warren has a plan to fix it (natch). Yesterday was the anniversary of the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, arguably a nadir for judicial ethics, and so, today Elizabeth Warren unveiled her latest plan, this one to revamp the judicial ethics rules.

The problem of ethical inquiries being stymied by judges leaving their current jobs has reached a crescendo. The inquiry into Kavanaugh’s behavior disappeared because he left the D.C. Circuit when he got elevated to the Supreme Court. The inquiry into allegations of sexual harassment in the chambers of once-prominent Ninth Circuit judge Alex Kozinski were halted, mid-controversy, when Kozinski handed in his retirement papers. Judge Maryanne Trump Barry pulled a similar move when she retired from the Third Circuit, ending all hope that an ethics inquiry would reveal whether the judge was involved in tax evasion.

Warren’s plan would allow these inquiries to continue, as reported by Huffington Post:

“My plan extends the authority of the Judicial Conference to former judges so that individuals under investigation cannot simply resign from the bench to avoid accountability,” Warren said. “This provision would allow the judiciary to reopen the investigations into Alex Kozinski, Maryanne Trump-Barry, Brett Kavanaugh, and any other judge who benefited from this loophole.”

And what about the lack of accountability for the Supreme Court? Does the fact that the Code of Conduct for United States Judges does not extend to the Supreme Court rile you up? Warren too. Her judicial ethics plan would extend the Code’s reach to the high court

“Because the Supreme Court is not covered by a Code of Conduct, no procedure exists to file new complaints” against Kavanaugh, Warren said.

She added that “questions are often raised about the behavior of Supreme Court Justices, such as Justice Thomas’s 13 years of financial disclosures that failed to list $690,000 in payments to his wife from the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing judicial activist group ― but these actions are beyond the scope of current rules.”

Such lack of oversight, Warren said, has gone on for long enough.

“These changes will not only allow us to ensure accountability for bad actors, including reopening inquiries into the conduct of offenders like Brett Kavanaugh,” she wrote. “They will also hold the vast majority of judges who act in good faith to the highest ethical standards, and in the process, begin to restore accountability and trust in a fair and impartial federal judiciary.”

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Warren’s plan would also take recusal decisions out of the hands of the judge involved, require SCOTUS to give a written decision when a party asks for a recusal, and give disciplinary tools — such as revoking nonvested pensions — to judicial ethics watchdogs.

Sounds a lot better than just crossing our fingers and hoping judges and justices will act ethically.

headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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