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U.S. Supreme Court

Judicial Conference declines to refer Justices Thomas, Jackson to DOJ for probes over alleged disclosure issues

By Debra Cassens Weiss

January 6, 2025, 12:00 pm CST

The U.S. Judicial Conference indicated Thursday that it will not refer U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Department of Justice to investigate whether they violated ethics rules for alleged disclosure failures.

The Judicial Conference disclosed its decision in letters to two Democratic lawmakers who sought a probe for Thomas and to a conservative think tank that sought a referral for Jackson.

SCOTUSblog, Above the Law, Reuters, Law.com and the Volokh Conspiracy have coverage.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia, who are Democrats, had requested referrals for Thomas following reports that he failed to disclose his interest in three properties sold to billionaire Harlan Crow, gifts of luxury travel from Crow, Crow’s payment of private school tuition for Thomas’ grandnephew, and Thomas’ purchase of a recreational vehicle with a loan from another wealthy friend.

The conservative Center for Renewing America had sought Jackson’s referral for allegedly failing to disclosure some of her husband’s medical-malpractice consulting income and potentially failing to disclose private contributions to her investiture celebration.

Both justices have filed amended disclosure statements addressing issues identified by the lawmakers and the Center for Renewing America, said Senior U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr. of the Western District of North Carolina in the letters to the lawmakers and to the conservative group. Conrad is also the secretary of the Judicial Conference.

In addition, ethics rules exempted gifts of personal hospitality from disclosure, the letters said. Guidance released in March and April 2023 said the exemption does not apply to gifts of transportation that substitute for commercial transportation, however, and to gifts at a property regularly rented out to others for a business purpose.

Generally, new guidance is not applied retroactively to previously filed reports, the Judicial Conference said. With regard to the personal hospitality exemption, the Judicial Conference agreed that its 2023 guidance doesn’t apply to travel to travel before 2022 because of confusion over the issue.

The Judicial Conference letters also said there “is reason to doubt” whether the conference has the authority to refer Supreme Court justices to the DOJ.

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Judiciary

Supreme Court justice’s teen dream comes true with Broadway walk-on role

By Debra Cassens Weiss

December 11, 2024, 11:21 am CST

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson will appear in a performance of the musical comedy & Juliet on Saturday in a one-night walk-on role.

The show announced Jackson’s Dec. 14 appearance and an audience “talkback” after the performance in an Instagram post.

CNN, Above the Law, People, Deadline, Entertainment Weekly and the Hill have coverage.

Jackson revealed in her memoir Lovely One that her Harvard University application essay expressed a desire to become “the first Black, female Supreme Court justice to appear on a Broadway stage.”

“Let’s make that teenage dream come true, Justice Jackson,” the Instagram post said.

The show & Juliet considers what would happen if the William Shakespeare character Juliet did not kill herself after the character Romeo’s death.

Jackson once performed an acting scene with actor Matt Damon in a Harvard drama class.

“He’s not going to remember this, of course,” Jackson told CBS News’ Sunday Morning in September. “The reason why I remember it is because he was already kind of well-known around campus and off campus, so it was kind of exciting to be his scene partner for a particular class.”

At the end of the scene, Jackson said, the professor told Jackson that she was very good and then addressed Damon.

“Matt, we’ll talk,” the professor reportedly said.

Judges sitting on the highest court in the Mile High State are reportedly under extra protection after receiving threats over their decision to bar Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot.

As Law&Crime previously reported, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the former president is ineligible to appear on the ballot because he “engaged in an insurrection” by taking steps to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win. The high court’s ruling reversed a lower court’s decision that Section III of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — which bars people who have violated an oath to uphold the Constitution from serving in public office — did not apply to presidents.

In the wake of that reversal, threats have been made against the justices, according to a CNN report. That includes the names of the four justices who joined the majority decision appearing frequently in “incendiary” online posts in extremist forums, CNN reported.

“The FBI is aware of the situation and working with local law enforcement,” an FBI spokesperson confirmed to Law&Crime in an email. “We will vigorously pursue investigations of any threat or use of violence committed by someone who uses extremist views to justify their actions regardless of motivation.”

Police in Denver, Colorado, have confirmed that “incidents” have occurred.