Code of Conduct and Recusal Rules for Federal Judges and Justices and Proposed Legislative Revisions
The Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges and the federal law governing disqualification of judges and justices have been very much in the news lately, in part (but not only) because of the activism of Virginia Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas. This podcast explains both the code and the federal law, why it is that Supreme Court Justices alone among judges in the U.S. are not governed by an ethics code, and some proposed legislative solutions.
Stephen Gillers is the Elihu Root Professor of Law and Barbara Gillers is an Adjunct Professor of Law, both at New York University School of Law.
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Reference List for Podcast #14: Code of Conduct and Recusal Rules for Federal Judges and Justices and Proposed Legislative Revisions
Press Release for the 21st Century Court Act, with links to the text and a summary of the Act: https://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/release/whitehouse-johnson-blumenthal-nadler-quigley-cicilline-jones-introduce-legislation-to-enforce-accountability-transparency-for-justices-and-judges A redline showing the proposed amendments to 28 U.S.C. § 455 appears here.
Rich Lowry, “Clarence Thomas Is Better Than His Critics,” National Review (April 1, 2022)
Danny Hakim, Jo Becker and Alan Feuer, “Texts Show Ginni Thomas’s Embrace of Conspiracy Theories,” N.Y. Times (March 26, 2022)
Jane Mayer, “Legal Scholars Are Shocked By Ginni Thomas’s ‘Stop the Steal’ Texts,” New Yorker (March 25, 2022)
Jackie Calmes, “Has Clarence Thomas’ Wife crossed a line. Yes, and then some,” L.A. Times (February 25, 2022)
Danny Hakim and Joe Becker, “The Long Crusade of Clarence and Ginni Thomas,” N.Y. Times Magazine (February 22, 2022)
Michael Kranish, “Critics say Ginni Thomas’s activism is a Supreme Court conflict. Under court rules, only her husband can decide if that’s true,” Washington Post (January 31, 2022)
Jane Mayer, “Ginni Thomas’s Crusades,” New Yorker (January 31, 2022)
George Will, “Clarence Thomas and his wife’s texts: A kerfuffle over appearances,” Washington Post, April 1, 2022.
Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL) Proposal to Amend Rule 5.5: https://aprl.net/aprl-asks-aba-to-revised-model-rule-5-5/
