美国国家公共电台 NPR--The Senate holds its Supreme Court ethics hearing this week — with no justices

The Senate holds its Supreme¹ Court ethics² hearing this week — with no justices

Transcript³

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Supreme Court ethics reform on Tuesday, as questions continue to swirl⁴ about the business dealings of several justices.

And it will proceed even without participation⁵ from U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts, who declined to testify.

"Regardless of whether the chief justice shows up or not, the committee will go forward with our hearings with ethical⁶ experts to point out why it's important for the Supreme Court to have such a code," Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii tells Morning Edition.

Last month a ProPublica investigation⁷ found that Justice Clarence Thomas didn't disclose two decades of luxury vacations paid for by a wealthy Republican donor⁸, who also bought real estate from him in Georgia.

And last week, Politico reported that Justice Neil Gorsuch didn't disclose the identity of the person who bought property from him in Colorado — and turned out to be the head of a law firm that has multiple cases before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court doesn't follow the ethics code that applies to other federal courts. Hirono says lawmakers had wanted to ask Roberts why that is, "so that he could explain to us."

Since the judiciary is a coequal branch of government, Congress can't compel it to adopt a new set of ethical guidelines. Still, some lawmakers hope to hold the Supreme Court to higher standards.

Lawmaker questions and proposals

Several bills, including one introduced in February and another last week, would require the court to adopt an ethical code of conduct and establish a mechanism⁹ for examining potential violations¹⁰, though they are not likely to advance in a split Congress.

Tuesday's hearing will examine what committee chair Sen. Dick Durbin, D.-Ill., has called "common sense proposals."

Roberts declined Durbin's invitation last week to testify before the committee, but submitted a joint¹¹ statement from all nine justices reaffirming voluntary compliance¹² with court "ethics, principles and practices."

However, that document leaves it up to individual justices, "rather than the court, [to] decide recusal issues."

Hirono says Roberts' response amounts to "too little, too late."

"They are the highest court in the land, they should be held to the highest ethical standards," she says. "And that is why we are having a hearing, because that's not where the court is."

Hirono says "we don't know" when the Supreme Court adopted the policies and practices in Roberts' letter, adding "there are a lot of questions."

Plus, a renewed focus on 'judge shopping'

Roberts also noted¹³ in his letter that the Judicial¹⁴ Conference strengthened certain disclosure requirements, such as around free airplane trips and gifts from friends, just this year.

And he's written about the need for other judicial reforms in the past, Hirono says.

"When Chief Justice Roberts made his end-of-year report in 2021, he noted that there were certain things that they shouldn't be doing, such as judge shopping," she adds. "So I think that he opened the door, and acknowledges that there need to be some changes in how the judiciary operates."

Judge shopping is the practice whereby plaintiffs deliberately¹⁵ file lawsuits¹⁷ in districts overseen¹⁸ by judges who they know will be sympathetic to their side. The Texas lawsuit¹⁶ over the abortion¹⁹ drug mifepristone brought it under renewed scrutiny²⁰ in recent weeks.

Last week Hirono introduced a bill aimed at stopping that practice by giving the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia exclusive jurisdiction²¹ over "cases that would have national implications."

The district court in D.C. hears a majority of cases involving challenges to federal agency action — it's the only court that can hear certain immigration and campaign finance challenges, for example — and Hirono believes their expertise²² will help ensure decisions are based on the law, not the ideology²³ of a single judge:

"So it would create a way that only the district court in D.C. will hear these cases, and will stop judge shopping in places like Texas, where 20 of the 27 divisions there [have] only one judge, which makes it really easy to judge shop."

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 swirl   

v.(使)打漩，(使)涡卷；n.漩涡，螺旋形

参考例句：

• The car raced roughly along in a swirl of pink dust.汽车在一股粉红色尘土的漩涡中颠簸着快速前进。
• You could lie up there,watching the flakes swirl past.你可以躺在那儿，看着雪花飘飘。

5 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

6 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

7 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

8 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

9 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

10 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

11 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

12 compliance   

n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从

参考例句：

• I was surprised by his compliance with these terms.我对他竟然依从了这些条件而感到吃惊。
• She gave up the idea in compliance with his desire.她顺从他的愿望而放弃自己的主意。

13 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

14 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

15 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

16 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

17 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

18 overseen   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was overseen stealing the letters. 他被人撞见在偷信件。 来自辞典例句
• It will be overseen by ThomasLi, director of IBM China Research Laboratory. 该实验室由IBM中国研究院院长李实恭(ThomasLi)引导。 来自互联网

19 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

20 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

21 jurisdiction   

n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权

参考例句：

• It doesn't lie within my jurisdiction to set you free.我无权将你释放。
• Changzhou is under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province.常州隶属江苏省。

22 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

23 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。