131 Federal Judges Broke the Law by Hearing Cases Where They Had a Financial Interest
More than 130 federal judges broke the law and violated ethics by hearing cases involving companies they had a financial interest in over 11 years An investigation found that more than 130 judges violated US law by overseeing cases involving companies in which they or their family held direct stock The report found that these judges have improperly failed to recuse themselves from 685 US court cases since 2010 The jurists were appointed by presidents whose terms have spanned seven decades, from Lyndon B. Johnson to Donald J. Trump Roughly two-thirds of the 131 jurists’ rulings ended up being in favor of their or their family’s financial interests Of the two-thirds of judges who disclosed stock holdings, about a fifth of them presided over at least one case that involved their stock, the report showed An investigation found that 131 federal judges violated US law by overseeing cases involving companies in which they or their family held direct stock, The Wall Street Journal reported. The judges failed to recuse themselves from 685 cases across the nation in which they held financial interest since 2010, the investigation revealed. What’s more, when the judges participated in these cases, roughly two-thirds of their rulings ended up being in favor of their or their family’s financial interests. While there are no laws that prohibit judges from owning stocks, the federal jurists’ code of conduct demands judges recuse themselves in the event that they hold any semblance of financial interest in a case – or, the ‘ownership of a legal or equitable interest, however small,’ as the set of regulations defines it. The cases in question were all held between the years 2010 and 2020 – and of the two-thirds of federal judges who disclosed… Read More
