Supreme Court Code Reveals Details About When Justices Should Recuse Themselves

The Supreme Court on Monday announced it adopted a new ethics code, giving more details about what could disqualify a justice from participating in a case. The ethics code covers a range of policy issues, containing sections codifying that justices should not let outside relationships influence their official conduct or judgment, spelling out restrictions on their participation in fundraising, and reiterating limits on the accepting of gifts. It also states that justices should not “to any substantial degree” use judicial resources or staff for nonofficial activities. “The absence of a Code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules,” the Supreme Court justices wrote in a statement alongside the code. “To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct.”...