Watch Live: Senate Judiciary Committee holds hearing on Supreme Court ethics

Washington — The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing Tuesday to examine calls for the Supreme Court to harden its ethics rules, marking a renewed focus on the issue for Congress in the wake of a pair of reports scrutinizing Justice Clarence Thomas and his ties to a Republican real estate magnate.

The Senate panel is moving forward with the hearing, featuring testimony from former federal judges and legal experts, after Chief Justice John Roberts rebuffed an invitation from Chairman Dick Durbin to appear. Instead, the chief justice provided the committee with a three-page "Statement on Ethics Principles and Practices," signed by the nine members of the court, that "reaffirm and restate foundational ethics principles and practices to which they subscribe."

Democrats have pushed back on Roberts' refusal to testify and said his statement "raises more questions than it resolves."