Supreme Court: Ok, we’re putting on the fig leaf now
By 
Clarence Thomas has finally embarrassed the Court enough, apparently:
The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it had issued an ethics code for the justices after a series of revelations about undisclosed property deals and gifts intensified pressure on the court to adopt one.
In a statement by the court, the justices said they had adopted the code of conduct “to set out succinctly and gather in one place the ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the members of the court.”
“For the most part these rules and principles are not new,” the court said, adding that “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.”
Although lower federal judges are bound by an ethics code that governs their conduct, the Supreme Court justices have never been required to abide by those same rules because of its special constitutional status. In a letter to lawmakers this spring, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the court “takes guidance” from the ethics code for other federal judges.
[…]
In April, ProPublica documented the justice’s years of undisclosed luxury travel, including private jets and trips aboard a superyacht at the largess of a Texas real estate magnate and conservative donor, Harlan Crow.
Since then, several news organizations, including The New York Times, have revealed undisclosed gifts to the justice by powerful friends. Those include the purchase of Justice Thomas’s motor coach, the payment of private school tuition for a grandnephew whom the justice was raising and the justice’s mother’s home in an undisclosed real estate deal.
Justice Thomas has defended his decision not to report the travel and gifts.
Given the supermajority required to remove justices, this is only the most superficial form of accountability. But it’s a testament to the institutional arrogance of the Supreme Court that until now even that was too much.
I will at least take some small pleasure in knowing that Thomas is Definitely Not Mad about the multiple stories detailing his massive corruption.
…”misunderstanding” LOL:
tbh I think it's actually the conduct of some of the justices that "has led in recent years to the []understanding that the Justices of this Court … regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules" pic.twitter.com/wfWDZ10rI1— Josh Chafetz (@joshchafetz) November 13, 2023