One day after President Joe Biden said Supreme Court ethics reform would be a focus of his last months in office, Justice Elena Kagan told a California conference organized by the 9th Circuit that the Court needs a way to enforce its ethics guidelines, NBC News reports.
The Court adopted a new code of conduct in November but, Kagan noted, did not include a system to investigate and enforce alleged violations. “The thing that can be criticized is, you know, rules usually have enforcement mechanisms attached to them, and this one — this set of rules — does not,” she said.
Kagan is not without her own benefactors. While she didn’t accept lavish vacations or even a motor home like her colleagues Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, Kagan has accepted a total of $1,184 in gifts since she joined the Court, an investigation uncovered, which is just as bad as the $4 million Clarence and Ginny got, some people say.