Chief Justice Roberts Has Declined to Testify on Court Ethics

Chief Justice John Roberts has refused a request to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, leaving Democrats struggling for their next move over demands for a code of conduct for the Supreme Court.

The request followed a report that Justice Clarence Thomas took undisclosed luxury trips over two decades paid for by a Texas real estate developer who has donated millions to conservative causes.

John Roberts

Photographer: Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg

“He respectfully declines the invitation,” Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin said to reporters at the Capitol Tuesday evening, holding up pieces of paper he said comprised Roberts’s response to the panel.

Durbin made the unusual ...