WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign Legal Center and 24 partners and allies submitted a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court (SCOTUS), urging the nation’s highest court to adopt a meaningful and consequential ethics code of conduct.   

Following a series of ethics lapses by multiple justices, which gained notoriety throughout 2023, SCOTUS announced on Monday that it had adopted a “code of conduct.” Unfortunately, this code consists largely of a series of recommendations for the way justices should conduct themselves with no tangible mechanism for enforcement — falling fall short of the  material changes CLC and the letter’s co-signers have long been calling for.  

“Despite the Supreme Court of United States unveiling a ‘code of conduct’ this week, little has changed. The new code fails to provide for any enforcement, making the prospect of real accountability for ethics violations unlikely. The result is a federal judiciary that will continue to accumulate public scrutiny and distrust,” said Delaney Marsco, Senior Legal Counsel for Ethics at Campaign Legal Center. “This is why Campaign Legal Center and 24 partner groups and allies have joined together to directly call on the Court to take the reasonable and logical steps necessary to change the status quo. A commitment to accountability through ethics enforcement is necessary to restore public trust in the Supreme Court.” 

CLC and 24 partner groups and allies are calling on the Court to ensure its code has a compliance mechanism. Specifically, SCOTUS should create an internal ethics office that will provide the justices with consistent guidance as to how this code of conduct — and other applicable rules — should be followed, as well as an internal ethics office to investigate possible violations. 

These steps are the clearest way forward for the nation’s highest court to build public trust. Similar ethics rules are already in place for members of the executive and legislative branches and exist for judges serving on federal courts. It is critical for the public’s trust in our democratic institutions that the highest court in our nation is held to at least those same ethical standards, and that justices are held accountable when they violate those standards.  

Accusations of ethics violations by individual Supreme Court justices have increased in recent years, with six of the nine current justices facing scrutiny for possible ethics issues since late 2022. At a time when public trust in the nation’s highest court is at a historic low, the reforms proposed by CLC and its partners merit serious consideration and adoption by the Supreme Court.  

Read the full letter here.

Bozeman, Montana — Today, the League of Women Voters of Montana (LWVMT), represented by Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and Upper Seven Law, filed a motion in Montana state court to block HB 892, a voter registration restriction that threatens Montanans’ freedom to vote. The groups argue that the law is unconstitutionally vague and imperils both Montanans’ freedom to vote and the important democracy-building work of nonpartisan civic engagement organizations like LWVMT. LWVMT initially filed suit against the law on October 31.  

HB 892 was signed into law on May 22, 2023 with the stated purpose of preventing people from voting twice in the same election, an action which is already prohibited under Montana and federal law. But HB 892 goes much further than this. HB 892 makes voters and voter registration organizations responsible for ensuring that registration applicants somehow deregister from a previous address. Furthermore, HB 892 could punish voters who do not provide detailed information—even if it is unintentionally omitted—about their previous place of residence when applying to register to vote. 

Under HB 892, if a voter trying to register is not able to comply with these requirements, they risk felony prosecution, including penalties of up to 18 months in prison, fines up to $5,000, or both. 

“We agree that voters should not vote twice in the same election, but HB 892 goes beyond penalizing double voting to threaten the act of registering to vote itself,” said Nancy Leifer, president of the League of Women Voters of Montana.  “HB 892 weakens democracy in Montana by discouraging voters from registering to vote. It also threatens the critical voter services work the League does for voters across the state. The League is ready to defend the rights of Montana voters and protect their freedom to vote.”

“HB 892 punishes voters,” said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at Campaign Legal Center. “It would punish grandparents moving into an elderly-care facility or students moving across the state for school, all for the ‘crime’ of not deregistering to vote or not being able to provide complete information about previous registration. This law is unnecessary and cuts deeply into Montanans’ fundamental rights, and we look forward to joining the League of Women Voters of Montana to challenge it in state court.” 

Federal law places responsibility for deregistering voters on election officials, not voters. Also, since both Montana law and federal law already criminalize double voting, HB 892 only serves to punish voters for innocent voter conduct. HB 892 appears likely to disproportionately harm voters in already-vulnerable populations, including housing-insecure individuals, elderly voters moving into assisted living facilities, students, Native voters, formerly incarcerated Montanans, active-duty service members and veterans, low-income voters, and voters who otherwise move frequently.

Additionally, because of the criminal penalties it attaches to voter registration, HB 892 discourages nonpartisan civic engagement organizations like LWVMT from widely spreading their pro-voting message and doing the vital work of voter registration,  outreach and engagement.  This is a violation of the LWVMT’s constitutionally protected rights.  

More information about the case can be found here.

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States announced that it has adopted a so-called "code of conduct" following recent allegations of ethics lapses. Trevor Potter, President of Campaign Legal Center (CLC), and a Republican Former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), released the following statement: 

“Campaign Legal Center has long advocated for the Supreme Court to engage in efforts to bind itself to a code of ethical conduct. At first glance, the 'ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct' of the Supreme Court, released on November 13, 2023, may seem like a step in the right direction, but the reality is that this statement by the Court does not constitute a binding ethics code or rule and does not satisfy basic principles of government ethics under any branch of government at any level.

The 'code' merely lays out principles that justices ‘should,’ but are not required to abide by. The lack of any true measure or method of enforcing this 'code' makes it clear that this is little more than an effort to assuage public outrage without assuming any actual accountability for ethics in our nation’s highest court.  

Every other branch of government has a dedicated body responsible for enforcing its ethics code, yet the Court does not even attempt to create one for itself here. This 'code' changes nothing about the existing system of ethics self-policing in the Supreme Court. In fact, buried at the end of the document, the Court says they may rely on a variety of sources in interpreting the requirements of the ethics code — business as usual.   

This 'code' manages to provide a lot of suggestions, but no dedicated entities or clear processes to interpret the code of conduct, investigate violations and enforce compliance. If this is the best the nine justices of the Supreme Court can do, then Congress must act to ensure actual accountability for ethics.”