John Roberts can't get a Supreme Court ethics code. Alito's interview shows why

When the Supreme Court left for its summer recess in June, the justices were at a stalemate on adopting a formal ethics code.

Chief Justice John Roberts has been seeking unanimity among the nine justices for firm ethics standards, CNN has learned, but such agreement has eluded him. It is not clear what standards a majority might be considering and the reasoning of the holdouts.

Justice Samuel Alito's new comments in a Wall Street Journal interview suggest why he and perhaps other justices might be resisting and rebuffing outside pressure related to ethics, despite escalating controversy over justices' lavish travel and other off-bench behavior.

Alito said he "voluntarily follows disclosure statutes that apply to lower court judges," and he expressed disdain for congressional efforts to persuade the justices to adopt their own ethics rules.

"I know this is a controversial view, but I'm going to say it," Alito said. "No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court - period."

Alito's broader remarks reflected a belief that outside critics, not the justices themselves, are the source of legitimacy concerns engulfing the high court.

Yet even as Alito brushed aside controversy over justices' luxury travels and other extracurricular activities, including his own, he revealed a potential new conflict of interest by granting a lawyer involved in court business hours of personal access for the interviews.