Supreme Court Ethics and Investigations Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Supreme Court Ethics and Investigations Act authorizes the Chief Justice to establish an Office of Ethics Counsel. Creation is discretionary. If created, the office advises justices and spouses on disclosure, gifts, political activity, conflicts, recusal, and unauthorized disclosure of Court documents.
The chief ethics counsel must be a new outside hire, may serve two six-year terms, and receives at least $225,000 annually. Other counsels are also outside hires, may serve two six-year terms, and receive at least $180,000. Counsels need bar membership, five years of practice, and exceptional qualifications, and may be removed by the Chief Justice only for cause.
Once the office exists, it must provide ethics training twice a year and every justice must take it. The chief counsel must report annually to both judiciary committees on advice volume, topics, recommended mitigation such as recusal or divestiture, and known failures to follow advice. The report is aggregate and the bill does not make advice binding.
The Chief Justice is separately authorized to establish an Office of Investigative Counsel with a chief and at least two additional lawyers. It may investigate justice conduct and conduct by spouses or dependents. Only specified House and Senate leaders and judiciary committee chairs or ranking members may file complaints; the public cannot file directly.
The office must screen a complaint within 60 days, respond regardless of outcome, and open an approved full investigation within 15 days. Its chief may subpoena evidence nationwide and seek district-court enforcement, with contempt for disobeying a court order. Reports go to the Chief Justice, or the senior associate justice when the Chief Justice is the subject, and must identify violations and actionable recommendations.
The receiving justice may release a report publicly but is not required to do so and may redact classified or personal information. The office must provide reports to four congressional committees within 10 days and promptly alert the Attorney General when it reasonably believes federal criminal law was violated. Recommendations such as recusal or divestment are not made legally binding. The Act is severable and states no appropriation.
Who Benefits and How
Justices and spouses gain specialized advice. Congress gains complaint channels, aggregate reporting, and completed investigative reports. The public gains potential deterrence and optional disclosure. Outside ethics lawyers gain protected, well-paid positions if the Chief Justice establishes the offices.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Justices, spouses, dependents, and subpoena recipients face scrutiny and document demands. The Court and taxpayers bear staffing and operating costs. Federal courts enforce subpoenas. Accountability advocates bear the risk that neither office is created and that reports remain nonpublic or recommendations unimplemented.
Key Provisions
- Authorizes a Supreme Court ethics office.
- Requires outside, qualified ethics counsels if established.
- Sets minimum salaries and protected terms.
- Requires twice-yearly justice ethics training.
- Requires annual aggregate reports to Congress.
- Authorizes a separate investigative office.
- Requires at least three investigative counsels if established.
- Limits complaint filing to specified congressional leaders.
- Requires complaint review within 60 days.
- Requires approved investigations to open within 15 days.
- Grants nationwide subpoena authority.
- Authorizes district-court enforcement and contempt.
- Requires findings and actionable recommendations.
- Requires congressional access within 10 days.
- Directs criminal referrals to the Attorney General.
- Leaves public release discretionary.
- Makes recommendations nonbinding.
- Provides severability.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Authorizes the Chief Justice to create separate Supreme Court ethics-advice and investigative offices with protected outside counsel, mandatory training and reports if created, subpoena-backed investigations initiated only by specified congressional leaders, congressional access and criminal referrals, while leaving office creation and public report release discretionary.
Key Policy Areas
Supreme Court Ethics, Judicial Investigations, Congressional Oversight, Subpoena Enforcement, Judicial Financial Disclosure
Primary Purpose
Authorizes the Chief Justice to create separate Supreme Court ethics-advice and investigative offices with protected outside counsel, mandatory training and reports if created, subpoena-backed investigations initiated only by specified congressional leaders, congressional access and criminal referrals, while leaving office creation and public report release discretionary.
Policy Domains
Sections 2 through 4 optional ethics and investigative offices, staffing and pay, justice training, aggregate advice reports, limited complaint filing, screening, subpoenas, findings, public and congressional disclosure, criminal referrals, and severability
Identified Gains
- Supreme Court justices seeking ethics advice
- Spouses of Supreme Court justices
- Congressional leaders filing ethics complaints
- Congressional judiciary committees
- Congressional oversight committees
- Public advocates seeking judicial accountability
- Attorneys hired as ethics counsels
- Attorneys hired as investigative counsels
Identified Costs
- Supreme Court justices subject to complaints
- Justice spouses implicated by complaints
- Justice dependents implicated by complaints
- Subpoena recipients in ethics investigations
- Supreme Court administrative staff
- Federal district courts enforcing subpoenas
- Federal taxpayers funding counsel salaries
- Members of the public unable to file complaints
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Introduced in House
Mr. Goldman of New York (for himself, Mr. Johnson of …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Chief Justice appointing ethics counsel, Congressional judiciary committees, Congressional leaders filing ethics complaints
Positive-direction: Congressional judiciary committees, Congressional leaders filing ethics complaints, Congressional oversight committees, Spouses of Supreme Court justices, Supreme Court justices seeking ethics advice
Negative-direction: Federal district courts enforcing subpoenas, Justice dependents implicated by complaints, Justice spouses implicated by complaints, Supreme Court administrative staff, Supreme Court justices subject to complaints, Supreme Court justices taking ethics training
Attorneys hired as ethics counsels, Attorneys hired as investigative counsels, Subpoena recipients in ethics investigations
Positive-direction: Attorneys hired as ethics counsels, Attorneys hired as investigative counsels
Negative-direction: Subpoena recipients in ethics investigations
Members of the public unable to file complaints, People seeking mandatory office creation, Public advocates seeking judicial accountability
Federal taxpayers funding counsel salaries, Federal taxpayers funding investigative counsels
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "justice"
- → Supreme Court justice receiving advice or investigation
- "chief_justice"
- → Chief Justice deciding whether to establish and staff each office
- "district_court"
- → Federal court enforcing an investigative subpoena
- "ethics_counsel"
- → Lawyer advising justices and spouses
- "attorney_general"
- → Justice Department official receiving criminal referrals
- "congressional_filer"
- → Authorized congressional leader submitting a complaint
- "investigative_counsel"
- → Lawyer screening and investigating complaints
Note: {'scope_ids': ['supreme_court_ethics_and_investigative_offices'], 'description': 'The bill gives each office substantial duties and independence once created but merely authorizes the Chief Justice to establish it; public complaints are unavailable, public reports are discretionary, and investigative recommendations do not compel recusal, divestment, discipline, or removal.'}
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
An optional Court office providing advice, mandatory training if created, and aggregate congressional reporting.
The Chief Justice's or senior associate justice's sole discretion to publish an unaltered report subject to classified and personal-information redactions.
An optional Court office screening specified congressional complaints and conducting subpoena-backed ethics investigations.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology