End Citizens United // Let America Vote President Tiffany Muller released the following statement on reports about Chief Justice Roberts’ conflicts of interest:
“After years of stonewalling ethics and conflict of interest standards for the Supreme Court, opposing good government measures, and systematically dismantling anti-corruption laws, it’s no surprise that Chief Justice Roberts is facing his own conflict of interest scandal,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “It’s time for reforms to the Supreme Court that put in place tough ethics standards and ensure the Court is protecting the interests of our democracy and the American people, not themselves or their dark money benefactors.”
New York Times: At the Supreme Court, Ethics Questions Over a Spouse’s Business Ties
Steve Eder
01/31/2023
Key Points:
- A former colleague of Mrs. Roberts has raised concerns that her recruiting work poses potential ethics issues for the chief justice. Seeking an inquiry, the ex-colleague has provided records to the Justice Department and Congress indicating Mrs. Roberts has been paid millions of dollars in commissions for placing lawyers at firms — some of which have business before the Supreme Court, according to a letter obtained by The New York Times.
- Public confidence in the court recently fell to a historic low, polls showed, and Democrats in Congress have called for greater transparency, including stronger disclosure and recusal standards.
- Partners at leading law firms in Washington on average make well over $1 million a year, and at the high end, they can be paid over $7 million.
- The spreadsheets list six-figure fees credited to Mrs. Roberts for placing partners at law firms — including $690,000 in 2012 for one such match.
- An ethics opinion by Bennett L. Gershman, a Pace University law professor and former Manhattan prosecutor, accompanied the letter and said “it is plausible that the Chief Justice’s spouse may have leveraged the ‘prestige of the judicial office’” to “raise their household income.” He added that those concerns, coupled with what he described as the chief justice’s lack of disclosure of potential conflicts, “threaten the public’s trust in the federal judiciary, and the Supreme Court itself.”
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