The Judicial Conference’s Committee on Financial Disclosures has initiated an ethics inquiry into Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson regarding an alleged omission of her husband from her financial disclosures.
Fox News reported exclusively that the Center for Renewing America, a conservative organization, “last month filed a complaint with the Judicial Conference – the governing body of federal courts – alleging that Jackson ‘willfully failed to disclose’ required information about her husband’s malpractice consulting income for more than a decade.”
The organization was officially informed on December 21st by the outlet that its complaint had been referred to the Financial Disclosers Committee.
“We are hopeful that the Judicial Conference takes a long, hard look at the ethics concerns surrounding Justice Jackson and ensures there is not a double standard for justices,” A former senior Trump Official and president of CRA announced.
“While the Left has made it a sport to attack the character of conservative Supreme Court justices, they’ve turned a blind eye to actual indiscretions and appearances of corruption actively happening,” he added.
Fox News continued:
“CRA’s letter suggests that the Judicial Conference should ultimately refer Jackson’s possible ethics violations to Attorney General Merrick Garland for investigation and possible civil enforcement.
The letter noted that federal judges are legally required to disclose the “source of items of earned income earned by a spouse from any person which exceed $1,000… except… if the spouse is self-employed in business or a profession, only the nature of such business or profession needs be reported.”
As outlined in the letter, Jackson disclosed the identities of two clients who had provided compensation of over $1,000 to her husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, in 2011. This disclosure was made as part of her nomination process for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
But in subsequent filings, Jackson “repeatedly failed to disclose that her husband received income from medical malpractice consulting fees,” the letter said.
“We know this by Justice Jackson’s own admission in her amended disclosure form for 2020, filed when she was nominated to the Supreme Court, that ‘some of my previously filed reports inadvertently omitted’ her husband’s income from ‘consulting on medical malpractice cases,’” the letter went on.
Vought noted in the letter that “Jackson has not even attempted to list the years for which her previously filed disclosures omitted her husband’s consulting income. Instead, in her admission of omissions on her 2020 amended disclosure form (filed in 2022), Justice Jackson provided only the vague statement that ‘some’ of those past disclosures contained material omissions.”
Vought, the former head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) during President Trump’s administration, further contended that Dr. Jackson’s earnings did not meet the criteria for the “self-employment” exemption.
The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (EIGA) denabds Justice Jackson to identify the “source of items of earned income earned by a spouse from any person which exceeds $1,000.”
Fox News reported that the former OMB chief argued that Jackson’s knowledge of the requirements in 2012, evident from her detailed listing of income sources in her initial disclosure filing but not in subsequent filings, along with her admission of omitting some of her husband’s income, constitutes a deliberate violation of the law.
Simultaneously, the letter from CRA aligns with criticism from left-wing advocacy groups and Democratic members of Congress, who have accused conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito of not disclosing vacations funded by friends who are also Republican donors.
Both justices have consistently maintained that they have complied with all ethics requirements.
In response to heightened scrutiny, particularly from Senate Judiciary Democrats advocating for new ethics regulations for the highest court, the Supreme Court issued a revised “Code of Conduct” in November.