There are few observors of the federal court system with comparable experience but even fewer with as much insight and wisdom as Russell Wheeler. He presently serves as a Visiting Fellow on Governance Studies for the Brookings Institute.

Russell Wheeler is an expert on various aspects of U.S. courts, especially federal courts, including the selection of judges; the relationship between those courts and the other branches of government, and with the press; and ethical constraints on judicial behavior. His current research includes  the structure and operation of the immigration courts in the Department of Justice. He is a former deputy director of the Federal Judicial Center, research and education agency for the federal court system

He recently wrote a very interesting commentary entitled, What’s So Hard About Regulating Supreme Court Judicial Ethics? —A Lot

http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2011/1128_courts_wheeler.aspx