The U.S. Supreme Court took an important “first step” in adopting a formal ethics code on Monday, reformers say, but the lack of any mechanism to enforce it has left them wanting more.
The court’s new code of conduct—signed by all nine justices—largely mirrors the code that has long applied to all lower federal court judges, with a handful of tweaks to account for what the justices called the “unique institutional setting” of the Supreme Court.

Formal group photograph of the U.S. Supreme Court. Seated, from left, are Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., and Justices Samuel Alito Jr. and Elena Kagan. Standing, from left, are Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Credit: Fred Schilling/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

