McConnell to Senate Dems: 'Stay Out' of Supreme Court Ethics

Democrats are interfering with the judicial independence of the Supreme Court, which is intended to be under its own branch of government by design of the Constitution, according to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

McConnell admonished Senate Democrats to "stay out" of the Supreme Court's business amid conservative Justice Samuel Alito's rejection of the "misleading" report by ProPublica.

"Look, the Supreme Court in my view can't be dictated to by Congress," McConnell said Wednesday, The Hill reported.

"I think the chief justice will address these issues. Congress should stay out of it because we don't, I think, have the jurisdiction to tell the Supreme Court how to handle the issue."

Chief Justice John Roberts leads the nine-member Supreme Court, which also includes five conservative justices and three liberal justices.

"I have total confidence in Chief Justice John Roberts to in effect look out for the court as well as its reputation," McConnell added.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and chair of the Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., are planning to introduce Supreme Court ethics legislation.

"The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards, but for too long that has been the case with the United States Supreme Court," they wrote in a joint statement, The Hill reported. "That needs to change. That's why when the Senate returns after the July 4^th recess, the Senate Judiciary Committee will mark up Supreme Court ethics legislation.

"We hope that before that time, Chief Justice Roberts will take the lead and bring Supreme Court ethics in line with all other federal judges, but if the court won't act, then Congress must."

But Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, denounced the Democrats' continued attempts to attack the now-conservative Supreme Court.

"They've been after everybody from Clarence Thomas to anybody they can get their teeth into to try to undermine the credibility of the court," Cornyn told The Hill. "I think all of us need to be concerned about the public confidence in the courts but this is not something that the Congress has any authority over. This is something the court itself needs to come to grips with."

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