All nine Supreme Court Justices signed a code of conduct after a sustained campaign to delegitimize the third branch of our government by Democrats and the left, who don't like some recent decisions like the overturning of Roe v Wade.

In a statement released Monday, the justices said the rules weren't necessarily new, they just wanted to formalize them:

The undersigned Justices are promulgating this Code of Conduct to set out succinctly and gather in one place the ethics rules and principles that guide the conduct of the Members of the Court.

For the most part these rules and principles are not new: The Court has long had the equivalent of common law ethics rules, that is, a body of rules derived from a variety of sources, including statutory provisions, the code that applies to other members of the federal judiciary, ethics advisory opinions issued by the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct, and historic practice. 

They also clapped back at those who alleged justices had been free up till now to conduct themselves any way they pleased:

 “The absence of a Code, however, has led in recent years to the misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules,” the justices wrote in an unsigned statement that accompanied the code. 

“To dispel this misunderstanding, we are issuing this Code, which largely represents a codification of principles that we have long regarded as governing our conduct.”

Critics have argued that some justices were accepting gifts and perks such as travel from wealthy benefactors and that those such favors could influence their decisions. The justices tried to address those allegations:

The Code is a set of five "canons," including two new canons that appear to be in response to reports over travel arrangements for private trips taken by Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas paid by others, and use of Court staff for book promotion — referring to a recent report on that staff of Justice Sonia Sotomayor's staff urged colleges and libraries to buy her latest book. 

"A Justice should not to any substantial degree use judicial chambers, resources, or staff to engage in activities that do not materially support official functions or other activities permitted under these Canons," the code states. 

The real reason the left is targeting the court, though, is because leftists believe it should be an extension of the Democrat Party and should only follow the Consitution when it suits the liberal agenda. Not surprisingly, President Biden has been leading the charge:

We cannot allow an out-of-control Supreme Court and Republican elected officials push an extreme agenda that takes away freedoms and personal autonomy. pic.twitter.com/oA2JG0WNiF

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 27, 2022

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) outright threatened conservative justices on March 4, 2020: “I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.” 

Inflation is gutting people.

The southern border is an open wound.

The rest of the world is on fire because Pres. Biden thinks he can achieve peace through weakness.

And what do Congressional Democrats do? They attack SCOTUS—a separate branch of govt. pic.twitter.com/Evihj7Us16

— John Kennedy (@SenJohnKennedy) November 10, 2023

In June of 2022, 27 Democrats voted against a bill strengthening security for Justices’ immediate families, despite the fact that there was an assassination attempt against Justice Brett Kavanaugh and illegal protests were occurring outside justices' homes.

Meanwhile, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in July threatened to go after justices she didn't agree with by investigating them, saying, "I believe that we should be considering subpoenas. We should be considering investigations."

Although this code is a good move in that it creates more transparency, it won't stop the whining of the left or their efforts to undermine the nation's highest court.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton posted to social media Monday: 

The Supreme Court has just promulgated a Code of Conduct for Justices of the Supreme Court to address the "misunderstanding that the Justices of this Court, unlike all other jurists in this country, regard themselves as unrestricted by any ethics rules. To dispel this…

— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) November 13, 2023

"This good faith move [code of conduct] will not mollify the extreme Leftists who are lawlessly threatening justices and trying to destroy the Supreme Court in order to advance the Left's agendas," he wrote.

Exactly.