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

WASHINGTON — An American intelligence assessment of the Ecuadorian presidential election, set for Sunday, concluded that a reelection of the incumbent president would better serve U.S. national security interests over the challenger. The assessment comes as the Trump administration mulls establishing a permanent U.S. military presence in the South American country, once known as the "island of peace," to help battle violent gangs, CBS News has learned.