Late Discovered Conflicts at SCOTUS Show Need for New Checks

An untimely recusal from Justice Elena Kagan has placed the U.S. Supreme Court’s ethics rules—or the lack of them—under fire again.

Kagan’s chambers recently discovered a conflict in an immigration case, Jennings v. Rodriguez, that’s been pending for more than a year and a half, the Supreme Court’s clerk’s office said in a Nov. 10 letter.

The case was reargued in October after the shorthanded court was presumably split 4-4 following the first argument. Kagan’s recusal suggests that the reargument wasn’t necessary, as a seven-member court could have resolved the case last term.

“The ordinary conflict check conducted in Justice ...