The senator Lindsey Grahamthe top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, plans to block Senate Democrats’ effort to unanimously pass a Supreme Court ethics bill Wednesday in the Senate.
“I would oppose it,” Graham, R.S.C., told NBC News.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who chairs the Judiciary Committee, said earlier Tuesday that he would seek unanimous consent to pass the Supreme Court ethics legislation that the panel has advanced last July.
Graham’s objection means the bill won’t be able to move forward because any senator can block a request.
It’s unclear whether the measure will come up for a vote under the normal process, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he is considering it.
Even before Graham made his comments, Democrats were doubtful the legislation would move forward. “I think I know the outcome, but we’re going to go through this exercise to make sure both sides are on the books,” Durbin told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
The Democratic-led Judiciary Committee advanced the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act in a party-line vote nearly a year ago, but it can’t break a filibuster in the Senate without 60 votes. Democrats have 51 members and no Republicans agree with the bill.
In a press release, Democrats said the vote followed “a myriad of apparent ethical lapses by Supreme Court justices that demonstrate the need for ethics reform.”
A Supreme Court spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
Justice Clarence Thomas reported two 2019 trips with his billionaire friend Harlan Crow to Bali and the Bohemian Grove private club in California in his annual financial disclosure report, which came out last week. ProPublica reported on The previously undisclosed lavish trips of Thomas and other justices in a series of articles last year that raised questions about the court’s ethics.
The bill would give the court 180 days to adopt and publish a code of conduct, allowing the public to submit ethics complaints that would then be reviewed by a randomly selected panel of lower court judges. It would also establish new rules for gift and travel disclosure.
The legislation would also require judges to publicly explain any decision to recuse themselves from a case.
Durbin last month called Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recuse oneself of a pair of cases linked to the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, after The New York Times reported one upside down american flag was displayed in front of his home in the days following the riot. Alito refused to move away of these cases.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
