U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday pushed back against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's recent public comments rejecting the ability of Congress to regulate the justices' ethics, urging his recusal in any cases concerning legislation on the subject. Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin and nine other Democrats on the panel sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts asking him to "take appropriate steps to ensure that Justice Alito will recuse himself in any future cases concerning legislation that regulates the court." Following revelations in recent months concerning undisclosed luxury trips by private jet and real estate transactions by some of the justices, the committee last month approved and sent to the full Senate a Democratic-backed bill that would mandate a binding ethics code for the nation's highest judicial body.