Is the SCOTUS becoming the next Congress?

By now you have probably heard plenty about the Jack Abramoff scandal that is rocking the U.S. Congress. You might even know that Virginia's Congressional Represenatives have some very, very close ties to Mr. Abramoff - this is old news, and still evolving.

As long as there has been a Congress, there has likely been corruption, and it's not exclusive to one particular political party either (but it does appear that Congressional Republicans have perfected the art of corruption as of late). Until some meaningful reform is enacted (e.g. term limits) we will likely continue to see Congressional leaders with their hands out looking for cash, and favors (like a golf trip to Scotland) in return for legislative "consideration".

But what happens if a sitting member of the Supreme Court of the United States decides they too want to act like a member of Congress? After all, presently there are no ethics rules - that I know of - that forbid a sitting Justice from receiving gifts from "close friends". It appears that Justice Scalia is so fond of some of his "close friends" - in this case the Federalist Society - he chose to skip the swearing in of Chief Justice John Roberts last September in order to get in some R & R time with members of the Federalist Society at an exclusive resort in Colorado. I mean how could Justice Scalia refuse? After all the Federalist Society footed the entire bill, and the swearing in of Chief Justice Roberts is just a silly formality anyway!

Of course this is not the first time Scalia's ethical conduct has been been questioned. Who can forget the time that Justice Scalia took a hunting trip with his pal Dick Cheney, just three weeks after the SCOTUS agreed to hear a case involving - of all people - Dick Cheney! (I do take comfort in the fact that I'm sure ethical concerns prevented the two from talking about the pending case during their hunt. Let's be fair!)

So what's the difference between Justice Scalia taking an exclusive trip funded by the Federalist Society and Justice Ginsburg doing the same but funded by the ACLU? To me, there is no difference. Here's an interesting quote from the ABC article linked above:

An examination of the Supreme Court disclosure forms by ABC News found that five of the justices have accepted tens of thousand of dollars in country club memberships. And Justice Clarence Thomas has received tens of thousands of dollars in valuable gifts, including an $800 leather jacket from NASCAR, a $1,200 set of tires, a vacation trip by private jet, and a rare Bible valued at $19,000.

Therefore, I guess I'm back to my orginial question, is the SCOTUS becoming the next Congress? Since the SCOTUS does not appear have "clear cut" ethical rules (see Scalia and Cheney), it's then the responsibility of the individual Justices to determine what is indeed ethical and what is not. Consider this: Jack Abramoff wouldn't be facing prison time if he had chosen to lobby the SCOTUS instead of the U.S Congress!