In a letter to Democratic senators, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said that individual justices decide when to recuse. He declined to meet with the senators to discuss court ethics.
Listen to this article · 3:40 min Learn more
- Share full article
“Members of the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the practice we have followed for 235 years pursuant to which individual justices decide recusal issues,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in the letter.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday declined requests to have Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. recuse himself from cases related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack after provocative flags flew on the justice’s properties.
The justices make those calls on their own, Chief Justice Roberts wrote in a letter to Democratic senators.
“Members of the Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the practice we have followed for 235 years pursuant to which individual justices decide recusal issues,” he wrote.
The chief justice also rejected a request to meet with Democratic senators to discuss ethics at the Supreme Court, writing that doing so would raise concerns about separation of powers and judicial independence.
Sitting down with leaders of one political party “who have expressed an interest in matters currently pending before the court,” he wrote, would only underscore that “such a meeting would be inadvisable.”
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
Source: nytimes.com
