Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) plans to try to force a vote Wednesday night on a Democratic-backed Supreme Court ethics bill amid the recent grilling of Justice Samuel Alito and renewed calls for conservative judges to recuse themselves from former President Trump’s immunity lawsuit.
Durbin will lead the Judiciary Committee’s Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse of Iowa, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Peter Welch of Vermont in urging a floor vote on the Supreme Court Ethics, Challenging and Transparency Act around 5:30 p.m.
But there would likely not be unanimous consent to take up the bill due to opposition from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R.C.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Graham’s office told Fox News Digital.
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Senator Dick Durbin will try to force a vote on Supreme Court ethics reform, but Senator Lindsey Graham will likely oppose it. (Getty Images)
If the bill goes to a vote and is passed, it would require the Supreme Court to create and publish a code of ethics, and would also allow for complaints against judges and for them to be reviewed by a judicial review board.
The bill passed out of committee last year on a party-line vote, with 11 Democrats in favor and all 10 Republicans opposed.
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Senator Whitehouse (left) and Senator Durbin (right) have made a concerted effort to force Justice Alito to resign. (Getty Images)
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York praised the work of Judiciary Committee Democrats after the bill advanced, saying at the time, “I support Chairman Durbin, Senator Whitehouse and the Judiciary Committee’s efforts to reform ethics at the Supreme Court, and I look forward to working with them to move this legislation forward.”
However, the bill has been in limbo since it was introduced.
Schumer’s office did not comment to Fox News Digital about plans to bring the issue to Congress.
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Judicial Democrats are making a new, concerted effort to hold Supreme Court justices more accountable in the wake of the controversy surrounding Alito and his wife. The New York Times recently reported on an upside-down American flag that flew at Alito’s Virginia home in the weeks following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, as well as an “Appeal to Heaven” flag that flew at Alito and his wife’s waterfront home.
Democratic critics say the flag was a show of support for those who rioted on January 6th.
Following this report, Justices Durbin, Whitehouse, and Blumenthal sent several letters to both Justice Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts, requesting a meeting with Justice Roberts and for Justice Alito to recuse himself from 2020 election-related cases.
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U.S. Supreme Court nominee Justice Samuel Alito (right) answers questions on the fourth and likely final day of his confirmation hearings on January 12, 2006, at the Capitol in Washington, DC. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Justice Alito has since refused to step aside from those cases, including Trump’s immunity claim in a federal election interference lawsuit that he is expected to decide this month.
The unanimous consent request also follows a secret recording, made by liberal filmmakers, of the Supreme Court Historical Association’s annual dinner on June 3, in which Justice Alito acknowledges that “there are fundamental and irreconcilable differences” when it comes to ideological differences. Justice Alito also agreed with activists that the nation should return to its “sanctity.”
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In an editorial on Tuesday The Wall Street JournalSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blasted his Democratic colleagues for trying to pass the bill. The Republican explained that the Supreme Court is constitutionally empowered to govern itself. “Liberals complain that the Court’s binding ethics code lacks an ‘enforcement mechanism’ that would allow them to credibly recuse themselves when they wish,” he wrote. “But this complaint would amount to ignoring the Constitution.”
“The Supreme Court, in accordance with the Constitution, vests judicial power in democratically legitimate judges. Democrats would rather have a bureaucracy that ‘administers’ the judiciary,” he said, sharply criticizing the Democrats’ efforts.
