Federal Courts Will Not Make Criminal Referrals to Justice Department for Separate Ethics Complaints Against Judge Thomas

Separate ethics complaints filed by members of Congress and an advocacy group against Justices Clarence Thomas and Ketanji Brown Jackson will not be referred to the Department of Justicefederal court officials announced.

The Judicial Conference of the United States said Thomas agreed to follow updated guidelines on listing free private trips and gifts from friends, following earlier reports of undisclosed hospitality.

For her part, Jackson has amended her financial disclosures following complaints about her husband’s consulting income as a doctor.

Democratic senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), along with Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), had called for an investigation by the judiciary itself into the undisclosed hospitality extended to Thomas by his billionaire friend. Harland Crow. ProPublica had reported on several cases of private travel and lodging over the years.

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Judge Robert Conrad, who heads the judicial conference’s policymaking body, said in letters to lawmakers that Thomas had filed amended financial statements “that address several issues identified in his letter.”

And Conrad said it was unclear whether the judiciary itself could make criminal referrals against a session. Supreme Court member.

“Because the Judicial Conference does not oversee the Supreme Court and because any effort to grant the Conference such authority would raise serious constitutional questions, one would expect Congress, at a minimum, to clearly establish any such directive. But it does not appear no such express directive in this provision,” Conrado said.

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The United States Supreme Court is seen during sunset. The court rejected a bid Thursday morning that would have stayed Kevin Underwood’s execution. (Aaron Schwartz/SIPA USA)

Conrad noted that Whitehouse and Wyden had separately asked Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Trump. Garland has not yet acted on that request.

Whitehouse in a statement criticized the Judicial Conference’s decision.

“By all appearances, the judiciary is shirking its legal duty to hold a Supreme Court justice accountable for ethical violations,” Whitehouse said.

The complaint filed against Jackson came from Citizens for Renewing America, led by Russ Vought, who was nominated by President-elect Trump to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Ethics questions, including some judges’ undeclared private travel, have led the court to adopt its first code of ethics last year.

United States Supreme Court (front row, left to right), Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan, (back row, left to right), Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pose for their official portrait in the Courtroom. Conferences East of the Supreme Court Building on October 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court has begun a new term after Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was officially added to the court in September. ((Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images))

But compliance remains in the hands of each of the nine judgesraising concerns that the court is not taking its own ethics enforcement standards seriously.

A two-year investigation by Senate Democrats released last week found that Judge Thomas’ additional luxury trips in 2021 were not noted on his annual financial disclosure form.

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Fix the Court, a group that advocates for greater judicial transparency, urged Congress to act.

“The Conference letters further underscore the need for Congress to create a new, transparent mechanism to investigate judges for ethical violations, as the Conference is unwilling to act on the only method we had assumed existed to do so. “said CEO Gabe Roth.