Chief Justice John Roberts' Defense Of Supreme Court Ethics Doesn't Soothe Critics
WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice John Roberts used his annual year-end report to defend his colleagues' integrity, but that defense did not move prominent critics clamoring for the justices to abide by the same ethical rules as other federal judges do.
In the 16-page report, released on Saturday, Roberts rebuffed calls for the U.S. Supreme Court to adopt the Code of Conduct for United States Judges -- which binds lower courts but not the high court -- and pushed back against partisan demands that Justices Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan recuse themselves from what may be the term's most controversial conflict, the health care cases slated for oral argument in March.
"I have complete confidence in the capability of my colleagues to determine when recusal is warranted," Roberts wrote.
The chief justice might hope that would be the end of the criticism; he likely knows better.
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Full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/chief-justice-john-roberts-supreme-court-ethics_n_1184780.html