(UnitedVoice.com) – The Supreme Court of the US is unlike any other court in the country. The justices have very little oversight and basically govern themselves. In November, the high court adopted its first-ever ethics code after a series of embarrassing scandals. However, Chief Justice John Roberts never explained who was going to enforce the code, leaving some experts less than impressed with it.
Now, a conservative group has filed a complaint against the newest justice on the court.
Ethics Complaint
On December 18, the Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank, filed an ethics complaint against Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. According to the complaint, which was addressed to Judicial Conference Secretary Roslynn R. Mauskopf, Jackson allegedly didn’t disclose “required information regarding her husband’s medical malpractice consulting income for over a decade.”
The complaint explains that during Jackson’s nomination process for the US District Court for DC, she disclosed her husband made more than $1,000 for the year in 2011 from two medical malpractice consulting clients. But in her filings after that, she didn’t disclose the money he received in consulting fees. Then, when she was nominated for the Supreme Court, she amended the disclosure form for 2020. Jackson explained that she’d “inadvertently omitted” the income on her previous forms, but didn’t list which years it was omitted for. The complaint accused Jackson of “willfully” violating § 13104(e)(1)(A).
The Center for Renewing America also stated that on the day of her investiture (swearing-in ceremony), the justice requested a celebration at the Library of Congress. The party was invite-only and privately funded. The complaint states that she was required to disclose who paid for the party because it was a gift.
Complaint Comes Same Week As Bombshell Report
The complaint against Jackson came the same week as another damaging report about Justice Clarence Thomas. The conservative justice has been the target of multiple reports because of his friendly relationship with a billionaire businessman whom he met after becoming a justice on the nation’s highest court.
According to a memo reported by ProPublica, Justice Thomas reportedly demanded a higher salary and threatened to quit. In a confidential memo to Chief Justice William Rehnquist, the Administrative Office of the US Courts asked him for guidance on the “delicate matter.” Congress never gave the justices a significant raise, but in the years that followed, Thomas accepted a number of expensive gifts and trips from a billionaire Republican donor.
The Supreme Court has not responded to the reports about Jackson or Thomas.
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