Ethics in Government Act - Criticism

Criticism

The most adamant critics of the Ethics in Government Act were the congressmen who passed it. It was said that if it had been an anonymous vote, it would have been voted down two-to-one. The Act was passed shortly after the Impeachment of Richard Nixon, the Saturday Night Massacre and a variety of other scandals on the national level. It was the first time in U.S. history when misconduct was a dominant narrative in the mainstream press. After passing a pay-raise for itself, Congress felt it needed to placate the public with the Ethics in Government Act.

When passed, the bill’s most controversial feature among Congressmen was its limit on outside income, which could be no more than 15 percent of his public service income. Said restriction did not limit stocks or bonds. It was even said that there were about a half-dozen Representatives who would not speak to the Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neill, because he pushed the Act through. Their claim was that the Act favored people with “unearned” wealth, people who already had it, over people with “earned” additional income, usually with a law practice on the side. Representative David Bowen (D-MS) called the ethics climate of the time a “witch-hunt.”

The critique most often cited by opponents of the Act is Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissenting opinion in the case Morrison v. Olson. Justice Scalia took a position as a judicial conservative, citing that the U.S. Constitution gave consolidated power to enforce the law to the Executive Branch, while splitting the power to legislate between the United States House of Representatives and the Senate, and that Legislative Branch’s ability to start an investigation was a breach of the separation of powers. He believed that the House of Representatives’ investigation through the use of a special prosecutor “ out of a bitter power dispute between the President and the Legislative Branch.”

The most basic criticism of the Ethics in Government Act has been that it repels good people because of its excessive levels of disclosure.

Another concern is the power of the special prosecutor who is required to pursue accusations that the District Attorney couldn’t disprove, allowing for legal harassment in cases many prosecutors say they would have thrown out were it not required for them to follow up on the accusations. It was a critique often cited by Republicans during the Supreme Court case of Morrison v. Olson, and then became popular among Democrats during Kenneth Starr’s three and a half year investigation of President Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

The effectiveness of the Office of Government Ethics is often questioned, especially as to whether it could develop and enforce regulation with limited budget, leadership and prestige.

Many complain public disclosure is a violation of privacy.