Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett said the high court justices are civil to one another and leave their heated disagreements to the cases and written opinions.
At the Federalist Society gala on Thursday, Justice Barrett noted the justices have lunch together after oral arguments and on conference days, saying it helps build their relationships.
”It’s very collegial. We work very well together,” she said, Politico reported. “The heat stays on the page.”
Justice Barrett, who joined the court in 2020, was the guest speaker at the annual dinner in Washington.
Three other GOP-appointed justices also attended the event: Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.
The court’s other GOP appointees, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Clarence Thomas, were not present. Neither were the court’s three liberal jurists: Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The justice’s appearances at the conservative legal gathering come as Democrats on Capitol Hill have promised to subpoena Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo, a judicial advocate and adviser to former President Donald Trump.
Democrats had readied a vote for the subpoena in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday morning but backed down, saying they ran out of time at a roughly 20-minute meeting. They say Mr. Leo should detail information about gifts that the justices may have received to help lawmakers impose an ethics standard on the bench.
Harlan Crow, a GOP megadonor and friend of Justice Thomas, is also set to be subpoenaed, Democrats say.
The committee’s inquiry, led by committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois Democrat, follows a series of news reports about Justice Thomas and his friendship with Mr. Crow. Some reports have also targeted Justice Alito over a fishing trip he took.
ProPublica reported that Mr. Crow paid private school tuition at Hidden Lake Academy and Randolph-Macon Academy for Justice Thomas’ great-nephew, whom the justice took in to raise at the age of 6.
According to ProPublica, the tuition total could have cost more than $150,000. Justice Thomas did not disclose the payments in his financial disclosure forms, which would run afoul of the ethics standards for federal judges, though justices have not been held to that standard.
Scrutiny of the justices has continued in recent months.
The same news outlet reported in April that Justice Thomas did not disclose that he took luxury vacations with Mr. Crow or that Mr. Crow purchased the home of Justice Thomas’ mother, even though she continued to reside there.
The New York Times reported that Justice Thomas and other Republican appointees collected salaries to teach courses at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law.
Justice Thomas said he consulted with colleagues about disclosure requirements for the gifts from his friend Mr. Crow.
The high court doesn’t have a mandatory code of ethics, even though lower court judges are expected to avoid impropriety or do business with anyone who may come before the bench.
Chief Justice Roberts has said the high court has generally followed the Judicial Conferences’ Code of Ethics which is binding on lower courts — but not the Supreme Court — since 1991.
In July, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill requiring the high court to impose a code of ethics on itself. The legislation has not received a vote on the Senate floor, where it likely won’t get the 60 votes needed to survive.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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