Supreme Court Justice Alito faces scrutiny over undisclosed luxury trip from GOP donor

Joshua Kaplan:

Well, I think one of the root issues in all of this is the lack of transparency and oversight on the High Court that really is a stark contrast to the other branches of government.

If you work in the executive branch, there is an ethics office that clears things for you, that analyzes these sorts of problems when they come up. There are strict rules on what gifts you can accept. There are extremely strict rules on what gifts you must disclose.

And the justices are more or less left to police themselves. And they always have been. These — when Alito went on this vacation and accepted this private jet ride that could have cost $100,000 to charter from a person he didn't know who had just had a case before the court, that was completely within the court's rules. He had to disclose it.

And experts say he violated the law by not disclosing it. But there was no restrictions on this. And then, if a conflict comes up or a potential conflict comes up, the only person who decides if a justice should recuse is the justice. And that's a decision that can't be appealed.

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