With all ten Republicans on the panel voting against it, the Democratic-led Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill that would require to create and implement a code of ethics that would require compliance with income and gift reporting, NBC News reports.
Citing the recent scandals involving Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito accepting lavish gifts from billionaires who had cases they either directly or indirectly benefited from potential decisions and opinions, “This legislation will be a crucial first step in restoring confidence in the court after a steady stream of reports of justices’ ethical failures have been released to the public,” Committee chair Dick Durbin said.