Thomas, Alito delay financial disclosure reports

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito delayed filing annual financial disclosure forms as the Supreme Court faces unprecedented scrutiny on ethics issues.

Legally mandated reports for seven of the current justices were made public Wednesday, while those for Thomas and Alito remained unreleased after they received extensions, a court spokesperson said. Justices are allowed a 90-day extension to file the forms. This is the fourth year in a row that Alito has received an extension.

The release of most of the annual disclosures came as the high court reels from reports about largely undisclosed luxury vacations Thomas took in recent years to far-flung locales on a private plane and yacht owned by a Texas real estate developer, Harlan Crow. Senate Democrats are looking into Thomas’ relationship with Crow as part of an examination into potential court-reform legislation.

Critics say Thomas’ acceptance of lavish vacations from Crow highlights the laxity of the ethics regime for justices, but Thomas’ defenders note that when similar complaints were leveled a decade ago about his relationship with Crow, a judicial committee found no willful omission on his part and appeared to bless his stance that the trips amounted to “personal hospitality” that did not need to be disclosed.

Spokespeople for the Supreme Court and for the office that handles disclosures for the federal judiciary did not offer any immediate explanation or documentation explaining the delay in Thomas and Alito’s reports, beyond noting that an extension was granted.

The disclosures submitted by the other seven justices revealed outside income from teaching and book deals, as well as reimbursements for international travel. The filings were published on the judiciary’s website (registration required) and were also posted publicly by the advocacy group Fix the Court.

Chief Justice John Roberts noted a change from previous years’ disclosures in how he reported income earned by his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, who is a legal recruiter. The chief justice’s new disclosure said that his wife received a base salary and commission from the recruiting firm Macrae in 2022. Previous filings had disclosed only a salary from the firm, and Roberts’ new report noted that her income had been “clarified over prior year reports.”

The clarification came after a former colleague of Jane Roberts complained to Congress that the chief justice had failed to adequately report his wife’s work, which involved public officials whose agencies had cases before the Supreme Court and who were seeking lucrative jobs in the private sector.

The complaints by the former colleague included a list of Jane Roberts’ alleged commissions, some of which were hundreds of thousands of dollars. However, it was unclear whether those sums were her own earnings or the total related billings of the firm for which she was working at the time.

The chief justice’s report also noted that previous filings had been amended to include an equity holding in Macrae, where Jane Roberts is a partner. The 2022 filing noted that the asset is worth between $100,001 and $250,000 — although she received no income from it — and had been “inadvertently omitted” from previous reports.

The newest member of the high court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, received a floral arrangement from Oprah Winfrey worth $1,200 and a designer dress and jacket worth more than $6,500 in connection with a photo shoot for Vogue Magazine. She also reported expert witness fees for her husband, a surgeon, although she did not disclose their source.

Several justices reported reimbursement for travel overseas, often to favored vacation spots, although the costs for the trips were not provided.

Justice Neil Gorsuch reported a two-week stay in Padua, Italy, last July as part of a program sponsored by George Mason University’s National Security Institute.

Rome was a popular destination for travel by the court’s members at the expense of educational institutions and others. Justice Brett Kavanaugh reported a four-day trip there last September to attend a conference of foreign and U.S. judges arranged by Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies. And Justice Amy Coney Barrett noted she took a six-day trip there for a conference held by the American College of Trial Lawyers.

While Alito’s report isn’t out yet, he also attended a Notre Dame-sponsored conference in Rome last July, making headlines for mocking foreign leaders who criticized his opinion overturning Roe v. Wade weeks earlier.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor disclosed a six-day trip to Edinburgh, Scotland, last July, paid for by New York University to take part in a conference for leaders in the legal field. She said she “extended my stay at my own expense for a private vacation in Scotland.”

Sotomayor also reported over $132,000 in royalties and option income related to her books and disclosed that some groups that invited her to speak also bought copies of her books.

Justice Stephen Breyer, who left the court last June but still files as a retired justice, reported being treated to a “fly-around” of France and Switzerland as part of his role on the jury for the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Some changes this year were incremental, perhaps ornamental. Kagan clarified an ambiguity in earlier reports about real estate she owns in Washington, D.C. The small holding, which she estimated was worth between $15,000 and $50,000, is a parking space she rents out for between $2,500 and $5,000 a year.

Barrett’s latest report contains the name of the law firm where her husband is a partner, SouthBank Legal. It was deleted from the public version of her report for 2021, even though the firm’s website prominently features Jesse Barrett and publicly announced the opening of a Washington office that year, about a year after his wife was sworn in as a justice.

However, Barrett redacted the names of schools to which she owes college tuition, presumably for two or more of her seven children.

Under federal law, judges and justices can ask to withhold certain personal and family information from the financial disclosure reports released to the public.

And under a statute passed by Congress last year and signed by President Joe Biden, judges and justices can take action to force websites to take down details about a justice’s spouse, children, homes, cars and employment. Lawmakers said the measure was needed to fend off attacks on judges and their families, a threat highlighted by the fatal shooting of the son of Judge Esther Salas and the wounding of her husband in an attack at their New Jersey home in 2020.

Legal experts have questioned the constitutionality of the law, noting the frequency of legitimate debate about judges’ potential conflicts of interest. Under pressure from First Amendment advocates, Congress did add an exemption for bona fide news accounts before sending the bill on to Biden.