Roberts declines Senate request to testify on court ethics

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts has declined a request from the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify at a hearing next week on ethical standards at the court, instead providing the panel with a statement of ethics reaffirmed by the court’s justices. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., invited Roberts’ testimony last week. The invitation came after reports that detailed a close relationship between Justice Clarence Thomas and a conservative donor from Texas. Harlan Crow had purchased properties belonging to Thomas and his family in a transaction worth more than $100,000 that Thomas never reported, according to the nonprofit investigative journalism organization ProPublica.