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#SCOTUS Adopts ‘New’ Process To Avoid #ConflictsOfInterest 20 Years Too Late

The justices announce conflict-checking #software & new filing rules that lower #courts have used forever.

Only the #SupremeCourt could announce a bare minimum #ethical #guardrail that lower courts have used since the George W. Bush administration & act like it’s a bold blow against the appearance of impropriety.

#law #LegalEthics
https://abovethelaw.com/2026/02/supreme-court-adopts-new-process-to-avoid-conflicts-of-interest-20-years-too-late/

Above the Law

Supreme Court Adopts 'New' Process To Avoid Conflicts Of Interest 20 Years Too Late - Above the Law

The justices announce conflict-checking software and new filing rules that lower courts have used forever.

troy_friz_zell

@troy_frizzell@mstdn.social · 6 days ago

@Nonilex

No federal official in any branch of government should be able to hold stocks in any company.

It's a clear conflict of interest regardless of which stock, regardless of which area of government.

Choose.

Work for the people or go gamble in Walk Street.

You S Blues

@patmikemid@sfba.social · 6 days ago

@Nonilex while continuing to shred precedent on both the shadow docket and end-of-term rulings.

Lizzie

@Lizette603_23@mastodon.social · 6 days ago

@Nonilex it's not that in disappointed, it's more like I'm exhausted from feeling zero surprise. Does that make sense?

Nonilex

@Nonilex@masto.ai · 6 days ago

#SCOTUS announced Tuesday that it will now employ #software to help the justices identify when they should probably #recuse themselves from cases. We say “probably,” because there’s still no actually enforceable #ethics code binding #SupremeCourt justices & the #ChiefJustice has made very clear that he will ignore any attempt to impose one. Instead, the Supreme Court drafted a 14-page pinky swear that they will follow some of the same rules that bind lower court judges.

#law #LegalEthics

FurballsNHairballs

@ChrisHolladay@mastodon.social · 6 days ago

@Nonilex
I wouldnt mind if the entire court was flushed down the open sewer line to the Potomac....They have no business being on any bench...not even a softball game bench.

Nonilex

@Nonilex@masto.ai · 6 days ago

According to this toothless document, the justices aren’t supposed to hear matters where they have direct financial stakes in the parties. Thus, this new #software package & a tweak to the filing rules to require parties include their stock ticker symbols.

To be clear, lower #court #judges have been using conflict-checking software since 2007. #SCOTUS first hinted that it might start using conflict-checking software in 2023. After that, the Court went silent….

#law #LegalEthics

Nonilex

@Nonilex@masto.ai · 6 days ago

827 days later: mission accomplished!

Gabe Roth of Fix the Court put a fine point on the situation∶

“Per their most recent disclosures, only two justices, Chief Justice #Roberts & Justice #Alito, own individual stocks, with the former holding shares in two companies & the latter holding shares in more than two dozen.

#SCOTUS #law #LegalEthics

Nonilex

@Nonilex@masto.ai · 6 days ago

“So although the new rule is a net positive since it comes in service of the full Court’s adoption of conflict-check software, it’s not a major improvement, & it should not have taken 827 days post-Code to implement. That’s especially true since lower court #judges have been required to use software-based conflict screening for 20 years, & several justices have been rumored to continue to use it after they were elevated.”

#SCOTUS #law #LegalEthics

Nonilex

@Nonilex@masto.ai · 6 days ago

Justice Alito’s stock portfolio has become a recurring subplot in the Court’s ongoing ethics drama. Just last month, #Alito recused himself—right before oral arguments—from the high-profile #Chevron USA v. Plaquemines Parish case because of his holdings in #ConocoPhillips, whose subsidiary Burlington Resources remained a party in the lower court proceedings. Alito holds stock in more than two dozen companies & accounts for roughly a third of all recusals at the Court.

#SCOTUS #law #LegalEthics

Travis Scott

@WheresMyWater@mastodon.world · 6 days ago

@Nonilex Venezuela was a pure corporate war

Nonilex

@Nonilex@masto.ai · 6 days ago

Meanwhile, the other 7 justices have figured out how to manage their finances without being ethical drags upon the Court [in terms of stock investments only. #ClarenceThomas is absolutely an ethical drag]. The #SupremeCourt took over 2 years to institute a new #software solution to fix a problem that exists solely because these 2 refuse to divest from the market as a small price to pay for being the nation’s SuperLegislature.

#SCOTUS #law #LegalEthics

Lizzie

@Lizette603_23@mastodon.social · 6 days ago

@Nonilex fucking assholes

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