"At a time when public trust in the Supreme Court has collapsed to historic lows, it's critical that we enact legislation to reform this broken system," Warren (D-Mass.)
said in a statement Tuesday. "From banning federal judges from owning individual stocks to overhauling the broken judicial recusal process, my bill would help root out corruption and restore public trust in the federal judiciary—something that Chief Justice [John] Roberts has simply failed to do."
If passed, the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act would impose the existing
Code of Conduct for United States Judges on the Supreme Court, require the high court to issue written "recusal decisions" whenever a litigant asks a justice to withdraw from a case, and prohibit all federal judges from owning individual stocks, commercial real estate, trusts, and private corporations.
The bill has six original co-sponsors in the Senate—including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.)—and 13 in the House, including Reps. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)