Durbin To Nom: 'How Do You Believe The Supreme Court Should Be Governed When It Comes To Ethics?'

Forbes Breaking News

At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) questioned Jennifer Mascott, nominee to be United States Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit.

Transcript

00:00for governmental actors and focusing on the preeminence of elections in selecting policy makers.

00:08Thanks Mr. Chairman. Professor, welcome back. Thank you. I'm glad you're here today and

00:13congratulations on your nomination. Thank you. You clerked for Justice Thomas on the Supreme Court.

00:19You also testified before this committee against the Supreme Court ethics reform legislation

00:26at a hearing in June of 2023. That hearing followed investigative reporting that revealed Justice

00:32Clarence Thomas received and failed to disclose gifts worth millions of dollars with some estimates

00:41placing the total value at over four million dollars. This was confirmed by exhaustive committee

00:47investigation and subpoenas that my staff and I conducted when I was chairman of the committee.

00:52So I have several questions I'd like to ask you first. If you are confirmed to Sermon on the Third

00:59Circuit, will you commit to abiding by all the rules and regulations governing judicial ethics,

01:05including federal statutes and the code of conduct for U.S. judges? Oh, Senator, absolutely. I would be

01:10committed to all ethics requirements. Yes, Senator. I'm going to assume unless you say otherwise that

01:15you had no personal knowledge of Clarence Thomas's receiving any gifts. Senator, that

01:22is correct. I was his law clerk. Yes. All right. What you came before this committee to testify

01:29on an effort we're making to try to establish a code of ethics for the highest court in the land.

01:36We know that there is a code of ethics that applies to federal judges other than the Supreme Court

01:41and how it is enforced. And we're trying to write something that would apply to Supreme Court Justice

01:46Thomas or any others who have millions of dollars worth of undisclosed gifts. Since you came and

01:53testified against our legislation, I'll ask you a very general question. How do you believe the Supreme

01:57Court should be governed when it comes to ethics? Well, so, Senator, I was grateful to have the opportunity

02:03to come here back back at that time during a challenging time. Just on your earlier questions,

02:10I just need to say again how honored I was to serve as a law clerk for Justice Thomas and have the deepest

02:16respect for him and his character and his integrity. I appreciate your question about Senator Whitehouse's

02:23proposed legislation at that time. In my recollection of my testimony on that act, and I think I may have

02:30been the only Republican witness in the committee testifying that day, I could be wrong about that,

02:36but that we were talking about the various constitutional or not aspects of the bill, and that my testimony

02:45focused not really on policy questions of ethics, but some of the particulars in the act, like the lower

02:53court panels sitting to evaluate recusal decisions of Supreme Court justices, and that I was pointing out

03:00that in our system that has the Supreme Court vested with judicial authority at the top of Article

03:063, that there were real constitutional questions about allowing inferior judges, as referred to in the

03:14Constitution, inferior courts, to sit in judgment, really, of any decisions of the Supreme Court,

03:20and that there were also a lot of open questions in our system about the way that ethics decisions should

03:27be adjudicated, but I do not recall commenting on the policy of the justice's decision to file recusals,

03:34and again, my understanding is that even though it's not covered statutorily in quite the same way as

03:41lower courts that the Supreme Court, by its own statements and commitments, upholds the statutory

03:46recusal requirements in exactly the same way and with the same rigor that lower courts do.

03:52So when it comes to the constitutional compliance, do you believe that receiving millions of dollars in

03:57gifts and gifts and not disclosing them is in the best interest of our Constitution?

04:01Well, Senator, again, and I don't mean to comment first on the premise of the question,

04:07my recollection is that all reporting requirements there were dealt with and addressed, and the

04:15constitutional question, again, I think the provisions in the bill, as I recall, that were the focus of my

04:21testimony are about how these types of requirements are to be enforced. And the Supreme Court, as I recall,

04:28I think a statement by Chief Justice Roberts at the time, again, emphasized how devoted the Supreme Court

04:33and every justice is to complying with ethics requirements. The main constitutional and legal

04:39questions before the committee that day were which actors in our system are responsible for

04:44for making sure those agreements are followed and questions about how two co-equal branches are to

04:52interact and how lower court judges interact with superior court judges.

04:56I think the reputation of the Supreme Court is important enough for us to be willing to consider

05:02new ideas and enforcement. Current rules do not work. There are too many gifts that go undisclosed to the

05:11the justices serving on the highest court of land. The Supreme Court of the United States,

05:16the highest court in the land, should not have the lowest standard of ethics. And when you testified,

05:21and as you mentioned, the only one who testified against this bill for reform,

05:25it left a lasting impression with me. I respect very much your education and what you've achieved in

05:31your life. It's remarkable. But this is one question that still remains unanswered as far as I'm

05:36concerned. Thank you very much. Thank you, Senator. Mr. Chairman Porter Gordon, could we,

05:42could you ask your team to either turn up the air conditioning or build a fire?

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended