The secretive Judicial Conference is tasked with self-governance. The group, led by the Supreme Court’s chief justice, has spent decades preserving perks, defending judges and thwarting outside oversight.
For decades, judges have relied on a select group to make sure the judiciary adheres to the highest ethical standards: themselves.
The Judicial Conference, a secretive, century-old council of federal judges led by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, oversees the ethics and financial disclosures for more than 1,700 federal judges, including the nine justices of the high court. Those financial disclosures, submitted yearly as a list of assets and gifts, are often the only window into whether judges with lifetime appointments have conflicts of interest as they rule on the country’s most consequential legal cases.
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In reality, the Judicial Conference has instead often protected, not policed, the judiciary, according to interviews and previously undisclosed internal documents. For decades, conference officials have repeatedly worked to preserve judges’ most coveted perks while thwarting congressional oversight and targeting “disloyal” figures in the judiciary who argued for reforms.
Judges are subject to congressional oversight in the form of both appointment and impeachment. The fact congress hasn’t done its duty isn’t the fault of the judiciary.
I think Congress has proven itself inept and partisan to such a degree we can safely assume it will never do its job fully and completely.
As long as it’s easier tobget reelected while not doing the job, it probably going to stay this way.
The problem lies in the system itself. Too much money and “favors” going around that can easily make their way to specific people.
If we want real oversight, there has to be an element of randomness that bad actors can’t control.
a broken system can’t be expected to work or fix itself
Not playing a blame game, simply pointing out fax