Bybee Quoted in USA Today Article on Code of Ethics for Supreme Court Justices

June 23, 2022

USA Today

Keith J. Bybee

Political Science Department

Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics and the Media

Ethics

SCOTUS

United States

USA Today

Keith J. Bybee

Supreme Court justices are not bound by a code of ethics and hundreds of judges across the U.S. say they should be. More than 97% of the judges roughly 860 judges who responded to a June survey by the judicial college, a nonprofit and nonpartisan institution that educates judges of all types from all over the country, responded "yes" to the question of whether the justices should be bound by a code of conduct.

"The first line of enforcement is self-enforcement," says Keith Bybee, professor of political science and vice dean of the College of Law. "When you're bound by a code of ethics, it leads you to ask questions about your own activities, and to achieve impartiality through a process of question asking."