Here are some links supplied by Becky W. for tomorrow’s discussion:
Feb. 7: Ethics
At tomorrow’s session, we’ll circle back to a subject we’ve touched on before: ethics.
Three unrelated (?) lines of discussion in recent weeks led to this topic:
- Supreme Court ethics (or code of conduct). Should it formally adopt one or, as the highest court in the land, should it continue to retain the flexibility of an “honor code” in which each Justice makes the decision as to whether to recuse from a case?
- Journalistic ethics. (Another trigger for the Supreme Court angle, centered around the public leaks from the court about Neil Gorsuch, Sonia Sotomayor, and masks). And the Sarah Palin/NYT defamation trial just getting under way.
- Corporate “ethics.” Should corporations be ethical? What does that mean in the context of a corporation?
For that matter, if (as Peter S. likes to quote) ethics is “obedience to the unenforceable,” who gets to decide what is ethical and what is not? (I have my answer, but I’ll save it for tomorrow.)
Biden’s Supreme Court Choice
With Stephen Breyer’s retirement, President Biden now has his first opportunity to appoint a Supreme Court justice. This has sparked a flurry of “news” about the perceived front-runners for the appointment, about how fast Biden should move (to avoid another Merrick Garland incident), about whether it’s appropriate to make (and fulfill) a campaign pledge to appoint a justice based on race and gender, among many other angles and considerations.
Here are some links (with PDFs available) provided by Peter S.
Racial Preference and Affirmative Action
NYT Opinion on Affirmative Action [PDF]
(And there have been a lot of other Affirmative Action op-eds in the last week, given the Supreme Court’s decision to take up the Students for Fair Admissions cases. Supply your favorite in the comments.)
What is “Black”?
A data point re: Barack Obama: His March 2008 speech at the Constitution Center (and a bonus musical celebration of his diversity)
One Candidate to Consider
Maybe we’ll do “ethics” (government and business) again next week…
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