Schumer also argued that Justice Roberts, in his role as the presiding officer of the Judicial Conference of the United States, has done too little to rein in “forum shopping” by litigants who file cases in specific federal district courts they believe will be sympathetic to their lawsuits.
“On issue after issue, he’s supposed to be the guardian of the court’s fairness and opinion, but on something near and dear to me, which is forum shopping, on ethics, on recusal,” he’s not done enough, Schumer said.
Representatives for the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.
Schumer said he’s consulting with the Senate Judiciary Committee, including its chair, Dick Durbin, D-Ill., about “the best ways to move forward.”
Last week, Justice Roberts declined a meeting with Durbin and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., chair of the Judiciary Committee’s federal courts panel, to discuss ethics issues.
“Apart from ceremonial events, only on rare occasions in our nation’s history has a sitting chief justice met with legislators, even in a public setting (such as a committee hearing),” Justice Roberts wrote in declining the invitation. “Moreover, the format proposed—a meeting with the leaders of only one party who have expressed an interest in matters currently pending before the court—simply underscores that participating in such a meeting would be inadvisable.”
