Stop me if you've heard this one before. There are concerns that the professional activities of the spouse of one of our Supreme Court justices represent a conflict of interest for that justice. No, not that spouse. This time we aren't talking about Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, Ginni Thomas, and her efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. This time we're talking about Chief Justice John Roberts' wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, and her work as a legal recruiter. Here, the concern is that Sullivan Roberts' work raises ethical questions because she has placed lawyers at firms that have cases before the Supreme Court. There are once again calls for Congress to subject the Supreme Court to a mandatory code of conduct. All but nine of the federal jurists in our country are subject to such a code, which amounts to a series of ethical canons. And the nine who aren't are the nine most powerful we have. This is a preview of Jessica Levinson's latest article. Read their full column here. |
