Watchdog urges lawmakers to review Supreme Court recusals

A group advocating for more transparency at the Supreme Court is asking lawmakers to look into whether Congress needs to intervene to ensure Supreme Court justices are properly recusing themselves from cases when they have a conflict of interest.

In a letter sent on Thursday to Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary courts subcommittee, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, Fix the Court said it has become more common in recent years for the justices to either fail to sit themselves out of a case or wait until the last minute.

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The organization’s executive director, Gabe Roth, said Justice Elena Kagan twice heard Jennings v. Rodriguez, a case challenging whether immigrants detained during deportation proceedings are allowed a bond hearing.

The court deadlocked in a 4-4 tie in 2016, but it was only after the court heard arguments for a second time that Kagan learned she had been involved in the suit while solicitor general of the United States and recused herself.

Roth also noted that Chief Justice John Roberts heard cases involving Texas Instruments and Thermo Fisher Scientific despite owning stock in both companies, according to a copy of the chief justice’s 2016 financial disclosures obtained by Fix the Court.

Roth suggested the justices be forced to use the same conflict-avoidance software judges in the lower courts are now required to use.

“Much as it was Congress that wrote the disqualification statutes that bind all federal judges and justices and, more recently, required all Article III judges to submit annual disclosure reports listing their financial holdings, Congress also has the authority to demand improvements in the area of missed recusals,” he wrote in his letter to the lawmakers.

He closed by asking Sasse and Blumenthal to request the justices give written or oral testimony on how to counteract the trend of missed recusals.

“In order for citizens to trust that justice is being done, we must first trust that our justices are playing by the rules,” Roth said.