Letters to the Editor: The Supreme Court’s new code of conduct makes a mockery of ethics

To the editor: As an aging attorney, I still respect some of the institutions that made this country unique. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recently issued code of conduct does nothing to enhance its reputation for integrity.

It would have been appropriate to revise the commentary attached to code to begin with the line, “Once upon a time …” and finish with, “The justices lived happily ever after.”

Robert Matthews, San Clemente

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To the editor: The justices now have an ethics code that makes them the Supreme Court of Justification.

And we wonder why ordinary citizens think they have no obligation to obey laws, much less honor a code of ethics.

Claudia Zuercher, Redondo Beach

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To the editor: Well isn’t this special.

The Supreme Court has issued a purely political “ethics” pronouncement to address its political public perception problem. In legalese that is known as “putting lipstick on a pig.”

Diana Lee Carey, Westminster

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To the editor: The Supreme Court justices say that their so-called ethics code would “dispel this misunderstanding” that they “regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules.”

Two quotes from George Orwell’s “1984” come to mind: “It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another,” and, “Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.”

Michael Grodsky, Santa Fe