Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is still facing questions about his ethical conduct – from his unreported luxury trips with a GOP megadonor, to not recusing himself from cases about the 2020 election that could directly implicate his wife.

And now, Chief Justice Roberts has refused to testify in front of the Senate to help get to the bottom of these ethical questions after he was invited by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin.

With the stroke of a pen, these nine justices make decisions that affect millions of people every day – which means even the possibility for anything but the pursuit of law and justice to factor into their decisions needs to be nipped in the bud.

Supreme Court justices are the only federal judges in the country who aren’t officially bound by a code of conduct governing their ethics– even though their decisions profoundly affect our rights and our lives.

Senate hearings on Supreme Court ethics start today – and whatever we learn, one takeaway is already clear: We desperately need a transparent and enforceable code of conduct for the Supreme Court.