Co-chairs: Tarik Kanaana, Peggy Koteen
Author: Mike Feinstein, member of CA Green Party (but not of delegation). mfeinstein@feinstein.org
The GPCA process is to discuss the plank for 3 days, make suggested edits that are accepted by the author/cosponsors, and a 3 day vote. This plank passed unanimously on 1/20/2024
This revision can be found in the GPUS Platform section: https://www.gp.org/democracy#electoral-reform
1. Democracy
A. Political Reform , 6.h Reducing Corruption and Good Government
The actual new text is in bold.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: This proposal seeks two amendments in the GPUS Electoral Reform platform plank. The first is a correction to what was approved by the GPUS in Proposal #1089, which talked about ‘strengthening ethics requirements’ regarding the Supreme Court and other Federal jurists.
As much of the nation learned in the Fall of 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States has **no** binding ethics requirements, as was recently publicized when the Court recently adopted non-binding standards https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/Code-of-Conduct-for-Justices_November_13_2023.pdf, standards that were seen at toothless by many observers https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-supreme-court-ethics-code-designed-fail/.
That means the GPUS’s previous text was incorrect in assuming that the Court had standards that needed to be strengthened, when indeed they had none at all, and now have only non-binding standards that allow the Court to ’self-police’. This proposal would amend the GPUS Platform to advocate for binding and enforceable standards.
PROPOSAL:
Replace existing Reducing Corruption and Good Government 6(h):
“Strengthen ethics requirements for Supreme Court judges and other federal jurists, including to address financial conflicts of interest and other forms of influence that are damaging to the courts’ independence and impartiality.”
To read:
Establish binding ethics requirements for Supreme Court judges and strengthen existing ethics requirements for other federal jurists, including to address financial conflicts of interest and other forms of influence that are damaging to the courts’ independence and impartiality. Require recusal whenever a conflict of interest creates the appearance of bias.
Increase disclosure, reporting and transparency by all federal judges around compliance with whatever financial and ethical rules apply to them, and refer violations to the Department of Justice for enforcement and/or to Congress for impeachment hearings.
Establish an Inspector General (IG) for oversight of all federal judges. Require public disclosure by all members of the Federal judiciary of their tax returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service every year. Require federal judges to make annual financial and ethics-related disclosures to the IG. Give the IG the power to investigate and monitor justices’ compliance with whatever financial and ethical rules apply to them. Require the IG to generate and issue annual reports of non-compliance with those rules, or with the IG’s efforts to investigate compliance with those rules, to the public and to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.
IMPLEMENTATION/TIMELINE/RESOURCES: GPUS Platform amended upon approval of this proposal
REFERENCES:
2021 Political Reform proposal #1089, approved by the National Committee https://secure.gpus.org/cgi-bin/vote/propdetail?pid=1089
Background links on ethics reform for the federal judiciary
https://stevevladeck.substack.com/p/bonus-49-an-article-iii-inspector
https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/articles/article-iii/clauses/45