• Chief Justice John Roberts declined a request from the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify before the panel.
• Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) had invited Roberts to a May 2 hearing on Supreme Court ethics reform. In his letter to Durbin on Tuesday, Roberts pointed out how rare it is for a chief justice to appear before the Senate. According to him, there have been only two prior instances, in 1921 and 1935.
• Durbin responded in a statement, expressing his surprise and displeasure with Roberts’s decision, but vowed to go forward with Supreme Court ethics reform without Roberts’s testimony.

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