Supreme Court Conflicts Of Interest: Follow the Money

Democracy Labs
8 min readOct 7, 2022

Six unelected officials with hidden conflicts of interest and beholden to billionaires should not be able to strip Americans of their freedoms.

Who funded the campaigns to get extreme right wing judges appointed to the courts? How do the judges’ spouses make money? Why are their family income histories redacted? Who benefits from the cases they rule on? Follow the money behind potential Supreme Court conflicts of interest.

“Justices shield spouses’ work from potential conflict of interest disclosures. Ginni Thomas, Jane Roberts and Jesse Barrett’s clients remain a mystery, fanning fears of outside influences.”

“When courts become extensions of the political process, when people see them as extensions of the political process, when people see them as trying just to impose personal preferences on a society irrespective of the law, that’s when there’s a problem — and that’s when there ought to be a problem,” Kagan said during her remarks at Northwestern. — Politico

Follow the money corrupting the justice system

Hidden money. Secret influence.

Dark money is a corrupting influence. Hiding it from public scrutiny makes it even worse.

  • Amy Comey Barret: “In the case of Jesse Barrett, even the name of his firm is unavailable on his wife’s most recent disclosure statement. Information about spouses’ employment is required on the forms, but justices may ask to redact it for certain reasons. Despite Barrett’s profile appearing prominently on the front of his firm’s website — and its touting of his employment in a press release — the name SouthBank Legal was redacted on Justice Barrett’s public financial disclosure filing for 2021. — Politico
  • Jane Roberts is a legal head-hunter at the firm Macrae which represents high-powered attorneys in their efforts to secure positions in wealthy firms, typically for a percentage of the first-year salary she secures for her clients. A single placement of a superstar lawyer can yield $500,000 or more for the firm. Jane Roberts’ clients include lawyers or law firms sometimes with active…
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