In an annual report, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts says the federal judiciary needs to do more to ensure judges don't participate in cases where they have financial conflicts of interest.
In 2015, Breyer participated in a high-profile energy case involving a subsidiary of Wisconsin-based Johnson Controls Inc. A routine check Breyer’s office does failed to flag that his wife owned stock in Johnson Controls. After the case was argued an inquiry from the news media brought the issue to Breyer’s attention and his wife sold 750 shares worth about $33,000.
Alito took part in a case about curse words on television involving ABC Inc. and other networks. At the time the case was argued in 2008, Alito owned about $2,000 of stock in ABC’s parent, Walt Disney Co. The case came out 5-4 with Alito voting with the majority and against ABC’s interests. He later said his participation was an oversight.
Roberts did not write about recusals on his own court for financial or other reasons. He did note that in the instances the The Wall Street Journal identified, the paper did not find that any of the conflicts affected the judges’ actions in cases. And Roberts underscored that conflicts were identified in “less than three hundredths of one percent of the 2.5 million civil cases filed in the district courts in the nine years included in the study,” a 99.97% compliance rate.
But Roberts said, “We are duty-bound to strive for 100% compliance because public trust is essential, not incidental, to our function.” Roberts said ethics training programs need to be more rigorous and “the information systems that help courts catch and prevent conflicts are due for a refresh,” among other things. He said officials are working to address the issue.
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