00:00last year. So a couple of questions from this. Is this a time to make this a requirement instead
00:08of a suggestion? That's my first question. Ranking Member Delora, I would be happy to
00:16address the question about gifts. The court follows the restrictions of the Judicial Conference of
00:22the United States applicable to all judges with respect to gifts, and we are not, there are
00:26restrictions on our ability to accept gifts. We're not permitted to accept gifts with, you know,
00:32some nuances and some exceptions from litigants before the court. And any gifts that we do accept,
00:39this is by statute. There's a statutory limit on reporting that requires reporting of any gift.
00:45I think that the limit is about $500 right now. You would know they would be on our financial
00:50disclosures because we have to disclose that. So with respect to gifts, we do have constraints,
00:55and we do have our in-house counsel. I mean, anytime I have any question about how the code
01:02applies to a particular circumstance, I always call him. Did you want to address enforceability?
01:09You know, on the code of conduct, as you noted, we, the nine justices all agreed to a code of
01:16conduct.
01:17It's specifically geared towards the Supreme Court. As you also noted, there is a question
01:23about enforceability. And right now, the mechanism has no enforceability system. And this is something
01:32on which various people have spoken in the past. And, you know, I've made my views known in the past,
01:39which is that I think we should work hard to try to figure out some enforcement system.
01:45I will say that that's an extremely difficult question for a pretty obvious reason, I think,
01:51which is that I don't think that you would want an enforcement system that was controlled by the
01:57executive branch or by the legislature. And this is because of what you said in your opening statement
02:03about the importance of judicial independence. You know, you don't want a president picking an
02:09inspector general to decide, you know, which of us is breaking the rules or how we're breaking the rules.
02:16So I think it really has to come from within the judiciary. And that's hard because, you know, we sit
02:24at the
02:24top of the judiciary committee. So it's hard to figure out how to have a system that is makes use
02:30of judicial
02:31resources to police us. One idea that has been suggested by some people is to use respected retired
02:39judges. That has, you know, some pros, some cons. I think that this remains an open question, a question of
02:50discussion. But so far, we have not resolved anything.
02:55Okay, and the chair now recognizes the gentle lady from Iowa, Ms. Sinssen.
03:02Good morning.
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