U.S. Senate panel seeks ethics details from Supreme Court -letter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate Judiciary Committee called on U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts to provide details about the top court’s ethics practices, the panel’s chairman said on Thursday after the chief justice declined to attend a hearing on reports that raised questions about potential conflicts of interest.

Roberts has declined a request to appear before the May 2 hearing following recent media reports that raised concerns about transactions involving U.S. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, instead issuing a statement that he said reflected the court’s stance.

“The statement of principles raises more questions than it resolves, and we request that you respond to several key questions,” U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Dick Durbin said in a letter to Roberts seeking details on when court justices signed on to the statement and what consequences they face for financial disclosure errors or omissions, among other queries.

ProPublica earlier this month reported that Thomas had not disclosed expensive trips from Republican donor and real estate magnate Harlan Crow, who also purchased property from the justice. Politico this month also reported that Gorsuch did not disclose a real estate sale to the head of a law firm.

Durbin asked Roberts to respond by May 1, saying the “answers will inform the Committee’s work on legislation that seeks to ensure that the ethical obligations and practices of the Justices are at least on par with those that govern the rest of the federal judiciary and the federal government generally.”

Two U.S. senators, independent Angus King who caucuses with Democrats and Republican Lisa Murkowski, on Wednesday introduced a bipartisan bill that would require the nation’s top court to create a code of conduct and appoint an official to review ethics complaints.

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