Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., held a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week under the provocative title “What’s Wrong With the Supreme Court: The Big Money Assault.” It was a hearing intended to advance his “Amicus Act”—a proposed statute designed to require (three time per year) amicus filers before the Supreme Court to identify donors who contributed more than $100,000 in the prior year.

Currently, Supreme Court Rule 37.6 that governs amicus filers requires them to indicate whether counsel for a party authored or made a monetary contribution to preparing the brief. It also requires disclosure of “every person other than the amicus, its members or counsel who made a monetary contribution.”