Ethics Rules Gap Made it Easier to Befriend Justices, House Told

A former anti-abortion activist said it was easier to forge relationships with Supreme Court justices to try to subtly influence them on abortion and other conservative causes because they weren’t bound by clear ethics rules like lawmakers or executive branch officials.

Rev. Robert Schenck, an evangelical minister who’s alleged that a party at a justice’s home produced a leak about the outcome of a big case in 2014, told a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday that the ethics gap was a strategic opening for his recruits.

“We knew there was a great deal of liberty and latitude there and ...