Chief Justice Roberts’ Wife Is Latest Supreme Court Spouse To Spark Ethics Concerns

Topline

The wife of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is facing scrutiny for potential conflict of interests after a former colleague warned the Justice Department and Congress about her role as a recruiter for law firms, the New York Times reports, the latest ethical issue to face the court after Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife already came under fire for potential conflicts.

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts and his wife Jane Sullivan Roberts arrive at the … [+] White House for a state dinner April 24, 2018 in Washington, D.C.

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Key Facts

Jane Sullivan Roberts, a legal recruiter, has earned “millions” in commissions for recruiting attorneys for jobs at law firms, which include firms that have cases before the Supreme Court, her former colleague Kendal Price said, according to a letter obtained by the Times.

Price provided records to the federal government showing commissions the justice’s wife earned between 2007 and 2014, and asked for an inquiry into the matter, arguing it should be mandatory for justices to disclose information about their spouses’ work.

Price sued Jane Sullivan Roberts in 2014 after he was fired from her recruiting firm—the suit ended in arbitration a year later, and the attorney who represented Price in his suit against Roberts and her firm, James E. O’Connell, Jr., has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Price did not cite specific cases that are of particular concern to the chief justice’s work, but cited Jane Sullivan Roberts placing Obama-era Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at WilmerHale, a large law firm that has argued more than 125 cases at the high court, as an example, the Times reports.

The chief justice has never recused himself from a case due to his wife and does not disclose her clients or earnings on financial disclosures, according to the Times, only reporting her salary but not commissions—but Price argued that’s misleading, as commissions “depend on cultivating and capitalizing on relationships in order to consummate particular deals.”

Supreme Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe told the Times the justices are “attentive to ethical constraints” and cited an advisory opinion that says justices don’t have to recuse themselves just because their spouse has been a recruiter for a law firm appearing before the court.

Roberts told Law.com in 2019 that she is sensitive to potential conflicts and handles them on a “case-by-case basis,” avoiding “matters with any connection to her husband’s role as chief justice” and declining to work with lawyers who have pending business before the court.

Crucial Quote

“I do believe that litigants in U.S. courts, and especially the Supreme Court, deserve to know if their judges’ households are receiving six-figure payments from the law firms,” Price wrote in his letter, as quoted by the Times.

What To Watch For

It’s still unclear if Congress or the DOJ will take any action in response to Price’s complaint. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said in a statement to the Times the letter raised “troubling issues that once again demonstrate the need” for ethics reforms at the Supreme Court, but did not commit to the committee taking any steps to respond to the complaint.

Contra

Legal experts cited by the Times were divided on whether Roberts’ legal recruiting work was a conflict of interest. “It feels hard to imagine how this would corrupt [the chief justice’s] vote,” University of Virginia law professor Amanda Frost told the Times, arguing the chief justice had properly disclosed his wife’s work and “judicial spouses should be able to have their own careers.”

Key Background

The Times report on the chief justice’s wife comes as the Supreme Court faces significant fire for potential ethical concerns involving another justice’s spouse, as Thomas’ wife Ginni Thomas has garnered widespread controversy for her right-wing activism. Ginni Thomas repeatedly aided efforts to overturn the 2020 election while cases challenging the election results were brought before the Supreme Court, and the justice’s wife has also been involved with GOP organizations that have filed briefs with the court. (Ginni Thomas has denied any wrongdoing and said she and her husband keep their work separate.) The 6-3 conservative court, whose approval rating with the American public has cratered to record lows in recent months, has also drawn scrutiny for potential ethical concerns among the justices themselves. Justice Neil Gorsuch faced criticism for speaking at a Federalist Society event alongside former Vice President Mike Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for instance, and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett raised eyebrows for attending parties with prominent Republicans or law firms, among other concerns.

Surprising Fact

Supreme Court justices, unlike lower federal court judges, are not forced to follow a code of conduct. This has drawn widespread criticism and calls for ethics reforms to the court, but has not yet resulted in any concrete change. Chief Justice Roberts responded to criticism about the Supreme Court not being held to the same ethical standards in 2011, writing in his year-end report on the judiciary that the notion the Supreme Court is “exempt” from an ethical code is a “misconception” and claiming that justices “do in fact consult the Code of Conduct in assessing their ethical obligations.”