 "Supreme Court Ketanji Brown Jackson (left) and former US President Donald Trump (right). AP")
US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said that she would be open to considering supporting an “enforceable” mechanism of the Supreme Court’s code of ethics. In a candid interview with CBS News, Jackson touched upon her time in the apex court and reacted to US President Joe Biden’s push for a binding code of ethics for the justices.
She also expressed displeasure over the court’s controversial judgement to grant broad immunity to former US President Donald Trump. Jackson’s support came after some of her colleagues on the bench have faced scrutiny over failure to disclose luxury gifts and trips.
“So, you know, a binding code of ethics is pretty standard for judges. And so I guess the question is, ‘Is the Supreme Court any different?’ And I guess I have not seen a persuasive reason as to why the court is different than the other courts,” Jackson told CBS News in the interview which aired on Sunday.
When asked further, if she would support an “enforcement mechanism” for the implementation of the codes, the Supreme Court justice gave an affirmative response. “I am considering supporting it as a general matter. I’m not gonna get into commenting on particular policy proposals. But from my perspective, I don’t have any problem with an enforceable code,” she added.
Jackson on Trump’s immunity case
During the interview, the US Judge also lamented over her conservative colleagues’ decision to grant broad immunity to Trump at a time when he is facing a plethora of legal cases. She noted that the immunity is essentially protecting “one individual under one set of circumstances when we have a criminal justice system that had ordinarily treated everyone the same”.
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More Shorts“I mean that was my view of what the court determined,” Jackson said in the pre-recorded conversation. “I was concerned,” she remarked. “The court … declared for the first time in history that the most powerful official in the United States can (under circumstances yet to be fully determined) become a law unto himself.”
The comments came after she joined fellow liberals Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor in voting against the immunity ruling, handed down by the court as Trump seeks a second presidential term while grappling with a host of legal battles. However, the recent push to block the judgment was overruled by the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority – Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts and Clarence Thomas. Out of these justices, Trump appointed Barrett, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh to the apex court.
The push to make ethics code enforceable
Last month, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan called for a way to enforce the Supreme Court’s code of ethics. While speaking at an annual judicial conference held by the 9th Circuit last month, the US judge said that the establishment of the system “makes sense”.
“Both in terms of enforcing the rules against people who have violated them but also in protecting people who haven’t violated them — I think a system like that would make sense,” Kagan said, according to the AP. Last year, the US Supreme Court adopted a code of ethics. However, the decision did not include an enforcement mechanism.
Following this, in July, US President Joe Biden unveiled a three-pronged proposal which also included the introduction of term limits for Supreme Court judges along with a binding code of ethics.
With inputs from agencies.