Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. tried to address growing concerns about ethical behavior and conflicts of interest on the Supreme Court in his annual report on the federal judiciary. But he skirted the heart of the problem: the justices are the only American judges not bound by a code of ethics.

He dismissed criticism that justices are exempt from the Judicial Conference’s Code of Conduct, contending that they do “consult” the code, which “plays the same role” for the court as it does for other federal judges.

But he misstates the code’s authority. While a justice can ignore the code, all other judges must obey it. If the Supreme Court is serious about abiding by an ethics code, there are ways for it to do so without impinging on the court’s independence and its constitutional role.

Because of the court’s unique position, a justice’s decision to recuse cannot be appealed to any other court. But the court can certainly say which parts of the code should not apply to the justices and then adopt other suitable means of accountability.