Justice Elena Kagan said on Friday that the Supreme Court should adopt a code of ethics, saying that “it would be a good thing for the court to do that.”Her comment, part of a wide-ranging live-streamed public interview at Notre Dame Law School, came on the day ProPublica reported that Justice Clarence Thomas had twice attended an annual event for donors organized by the conservative political network established by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.
Justice Kagan did not discuss the report, but she said that an ethics code “would, I think, go far in persuading other people that we were adhering to the highest standards of conduct.” She added that “I hope we can make progress.”G. Marcus Cole, the law school’s dean, asked her to identify the holdout among the justices.
She refused, saying the justices’ deliberations are private.
“What goes on in the conference room stays in the conference room,” she said.
She added that she did not want to suggest that there was a single holdout.
Persons:
Elena Kagan, ”, Clarence Thomas, Charles, David Koch, Justice Kagan, G, Marcus Cole
Organizations:
Notre Dame Law School