Is the Supreme Court ready for reform yet?

That’s my updated version of the immortal declaration that legendary alderman and saloonkeeper Mathias “Paddy” Bauler reportedly delivered on the night of Richard J. Daley’s first election as Chicago’s mayor in 1955: “Chicago ain’t ready for reform yet.”

- Clarence Page

Associate Justice Samuel Alito sits during a group photo of the justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. on April 23, 2021

I asked myself the same question of the Supreme Court when I heard Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, call for the justices to adopt a potentially mighty reform that they traditionally have opposed: a code of ethics.

All other federal judges have one. So do many of us in the private sector. Why, asks Durbin, not the nation’s highest court?

A long-time proponent of such a code, Durbin ramped up scrutiny of the nation’s highest court after ProPublica reported a big freebie enjoyed by Justice Samuel Alito. He reportedly went on a free luxury fishing trip with hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer in 2008 without disclosing the flight on disclosure forms — or recusing himself from at least 10 cases that the businessman later had in front of the court.

That’s about as helpful to public trust as Bauler’s celebration.