Liberals have decried some of the court's recent major rulings including expanding gun rights and ending its recognition of a constitutional right to abortion. Some Republican committee members sought to portray these revelations as part of an effort by liberals and Democrats to smear the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority. Separately, the news outlet Politico has reported that conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch failed to disclose the buyer of a Colorado property in which he had a stake - the chief executive of a major law firm whose attorneys have been involved in numerous Supreme Court cases. The news outlet ProPublica has detailed ties between conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, the court's longest-tenured member, and wealthy Republican donor Harlan Crow, including real estate purchases and luxury travel paid for by the Dallas businessman. Instead, the committee heard from lawyers and academics who differed over whether Congress possessed the authority to impose ethics guidelines on the government's judicial branch. None of the nine justices appeared at the hearing, with Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday declining Durbin's invitation for him to testify. "That reality is driving a crisis in public confidence in the Supreme Court. "The highest court in the land should not have the lowest ethical standards," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, who asserted at a hearing that the court's failure to fix the problem on its own means Congress must do it instead. Supreme Court amid revelations about luxury trips and real estate transactions by conservative justices, but the panel's Republican members voiced stern opposition.
WASHINGTON, May 2 (Reuters) - A Democratic-led Senate panel on Tuesday explored the possibility of pursuing legislation to impose ethics standards on the U.S.
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