In a recent development, the Center for Renewing America, a conservative policy group, has lodged an ethics complaint against Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
The complaint alleges that Justice Jackson intentionally failed to disclose necessary income details for several years while she was a federal judge. The group, led by Russ Vought, a former senior official in the Trump White House, submitted a letter to the Judicial Conference outlining these allegations.
The letter suggests that Justice Jackson deliberately neglected to disclose information about her husband's income from malpractice consulting over a decade. It recommends that the Judicial Conference refer these potential ethics violations to Attorney General Merrick Garland for further investigation and possible civil enforcement.
Federal judges are legally obligated to disclose the "source of items of earned income earned by a spouse from any person which exceed $1,000exceptif the spouse is self-employed in business or a profession, only the nature of such business or profession needs be reported," the letter points out.
During her nomination to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Justice Jackson revealed the names of two legal medical malpractice consulting clients who paid her husband, Dr. Patrick Jackson, more than $1,000 in 2011. However, the letter alleges that in subsequent filings, Justice Jackson "repeatedly failed to disclose that her husband received income from medical malpractice consulting fees."
This claim is supported by Justice Jackson's own admission in her amended 2020 disclosure form, filed during her Supreme Court nomination, that she had "inadvertently omitted" her husband's income from "consulting on medical malpractice cases" in some of her previous reports.
The letter criticizes Justice Jackson for not specifying the years in which her husband's consulting income was omitted from her disclosures. Instead, her 2020 amended disclosure form, filed in 2022, vaguely states that "some" of her past disclosures contained significant omissions.
Vought, who served as the head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under President Trump, argues that Dr. Jackson's income does not qualify for the "self-employment" exception. The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (EIGA) mandates Justice Jackson to identify the "source of items of earned income earned by a spouse from any person which exceeds $1,000."
Vought contends that Justice Jackson's failure to list specific income sources in her subsequent filings, despite having done so in her first disclosure filing in 2012, constitutes a "willful" violation of the law.
The letter also raises concerns about Justice Jackson's failure to report the private funding sources for her "massive investiture celebration at the Library of Congress" in her most recent financial disclosure. The event, held in 2022 following her Supreme Court appointment, featured performances by several musicians and groups, including the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Quartet and civil rights movement Freedom Singer Rutha Mae Harris.
The EIGA requires that any gift "received over $415" be disclosed. The Act defines "gift" as "a payment, advance, forbearance, rendering, or deposit of money, or [anything] of value."
Justice Jackson's disclosure for that year includes a $1,200 flower gift from Oprah Winfrey and a designer jacket from her Vogue photo shoot valued at $6,580.
Vought argues that Justice Jackson's "disturbing trend of not reporting material sources of income and gifts" has "shielded potential conflicts of interest from public scrutiny and undermined the ability of the public, outside watchdog groups, and parties to scrutinize her recusal decisions."
Login