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58 Conn. L. Rev. 1 (2025-2026)

handle is hein.journals/conlr58 and id is 1 raw text is: CONNECTICUT LAW REVIEW VOLUME 58 DECEMBER 2025 NUMBER 1 Essay Judicial Ethics, the Supreme Court, and the Rule of Law CHARLES GARDNER GEYH This Essay begins with a short history ofjudicial ethics regulation in the United States, ending with the adoption of codes of conduct by every state and federal judicial system except the Supreme Court of the United States. It then turns to a series of ethics controversies encircling the Supreme Court and its justices, which culmainated in the Supreme Court adopting a Code of Conduct in 2023. Tapping into the social science literature, it argues that for codes to improve the ethical climate of an institution they must encourage psychological ownership of and buy-in to a code by those subject to its terms, which the Suprme Court of The United States Code has failed to do, as evidenced by the Court's resistance to adopting a Code and its efforts to dilute Code obligations. The Essay then proposes several reforms that the Court could implement over time, in a business as usual, world to better acclimate itself to the code culture that other judicial systems have embraced. It concludes, however, by arguing that beginning in 2025, the second Trump administration has stress-tested the rule of law in ways that have forced the Supreme Court into confrontations with the President that threaten the Court's legitimacy in unprecedented ways and add urgency to the need for the Court to ensure that its ethics are above reproach.