The ethical judgments of the Supreme Court justices have become an important issue recently. The court cannot ¹______ its legitimacy as guardian of the rule of law ²______ justices behave like politicians. Yet, in several instances, justices acted in ways that ³______ the court's reputation for being independent and impartial.

Justice Antonin Scalia, for example, appeared at political events. That kind of activity makes it less likely that the court's decisions will be ⁴______ as impartial judgments. Part of the problem is that the justices are not ⁵______ by an ethics code. At the very least, the court should make itself ⁶______ to the code of conduct that ⁷______ to the rest of the federal judiciary.

This and other similar cases ⁸______ the question of whether there is still a ⁹______ between the court and politics.

The framers of the Constitution envisioned law ¹⁰______ having authority apart from politics. They gave justices permanent positions ¹¹______ they would be free to ¹²______ those in power and have no need to ¹³______ political support. Our legal system was designed to set law apart from politics precisely because they are so closely ¹⁴______.

Constitutional law is political because it results from choices rooted in fundamental social ¹⁵______ like liberty and property. When the court deals with social policy decisions, the law it ¹⁶______ is inescapably political — which is why decisions split along ideological lines are so easily ¹⁷______ as unjust.

The justices must ¹⁸______ doubts about the court's legitimacy by making themselves ¹⁹______ to the code of conduct. That would make their rulings more likely to be seen as separate from politics and, ²⁰______, convincing as law.