The Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee canceled a planned vote to subpoena a pair of conservative judicial advocates as part of its Supreme Court ethics investigation Wednesday evening, marking the second delay in two weeks.
Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) said the panel would not hold its scheduled business meeting Thursday morning, according to the committee’s webpage. The committee meeting was intended to include a vote on whether to subpoena Leonard Leo, co-chairman of the board of the Federalist Society, and Harlan Crow, a Republican megadonor who has routinely taken Justice Clarence Thomas on lavish vacations.
BIDEN’S BOSTON DOCUMENTS RETRIEVAL TREATED WITH ‘DISCRETION,’ NARA EMAILS REVEAL
Last Thursday, Senate Judiciary Democrats punted on voting to subpoena Crow and Leo in the face of intense Republican opposition on the committee. The planned 10 a.m. executive business meeting was canceled due to the Senate vote on the stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown and adjourning for Thanksgiving, a Durbin spokeswoman told the Washington Examiner.
Cancellation of the meeting comes as the Supreme Court this week adopted an ethics code for the first time following months of intense scrutiny after ProPublica reported on Thomas’s travels with Crow. The outlet also reported that Justice Samuel Alito was offered a flight on billionaire Paul Singer’s plane for a fishing trip to Alaska in 2008, and a separate report from the Associated Press revealed Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s staff had prodded colleges and libraries to purchase her books.
Some Republicans on the committee have called on the justices to adopt a code of ethics but have stopped short of agreeing with Durbin’s push for an ethics investigation, accusing Democrats of being disgruntled with recent decisions by the 6-3 Republican-appointed majority on the high court.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sits on the committee and threatened last Thursday to add amendments that would include subpoenas for Sotomayor’s clerks, her book publisher, and many others. That meeting abruptly ended shortly after Blackburn said Democrats’ focus was on “discrediting” the court, leading the committee to delay the vote.
Durbin told the Washington Examiner this week that it was “no surprise” the justices adopted a code of ethics, but like many of his colleagues, he expressed dissatisfaction that the new code didn’t include any mechanism of enforcement.
“They’re under a lot of pressure. The reputation of the court has been damaged. We’re going over it very carefully to see exactly what they did and whether it really is enough disclosure and enforcement,” Durbin said. The chairman said last week the committee would continue its efforts to authorize subpoenas in the future, though it’s unclear when a new vote will be scheduled.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Durbin has supported Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in his push for Congress to pass the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency, or SCERT, Act, which would form a mechanism to investigate alleged violations of the code of conduct and other laws, improve transparency when justices have connections to filers of amicus briefs, and require public explanations when justices recuse from cases.
The Washington Examiner contacted Durbin’s office for response.
