Judges Held Off Congress’s Efforts to Impose Ethics Rules—Until Now
Judiciary Committee members have introduced several other bills to modernize the judiciary's ethics, disclosure, and transparency rules, which could be swept into omnibus legislation.
"Reforms in our judiciary are needed and past due," said Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat who heads the House Judiciary Committee's courts subcommittee. "The covers are off, and people understand the judicial branch has done an excellent job protecting itself and insulating itself from change. But the need for change is glaring."
Over the years, top judges at times have been direct in lobbying against judicial legislation. In 1978, then-Chief Justice Warren Burger called a lawmaker to demand amendments to a bill to restructure federal bankruptcy courts, according to Judge Scott Clarkson, a congressional aide at the time.