Bill requires Supreme Court judges to follow ethics rules.
S. 5121 — Supreme Court Ethics Act · Filed by Christopher Murphy (D-CT) · 14 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 23, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill makes judges adopt a written code of conduct. It creates an Ethics Investigations Counsel to look into ethics violations. The Counsel takes complaints from the public. Judges must publicly explain why they step aside from cases. Judges must also explain when they refuse to step aside.
Who it affects
People can report when judges act improperly. People learn why judges step aside from cases. The bill does not take away people's rights.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say what happens if judges break the ethics rules. The Counsel can look into violations and report findings. But the bill does not explain if findings lead to punishment or removal.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
14 cosponsors: 13 Democrats, 1 Independents.
- Jul 23, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 23, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Ethics Investigations Counsel — A new official who looks into ethics violations and takes complaints from the public.
- code of conduct — A written set of rules that judges must follow about how to act ethically.
- ethics violations — When a judge breaks rules about how to act properly in their job.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,594 characters) on Jul 25, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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