The Center for Renewing America, a conservative policy group led by former Trump administration official Russ Vought, has filed an ethics complaint against Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. The complaint alleges that Justice Jackson “willfully” failed to disclose required income information while she served on the federal bench.
The complaint focuses on Justice Jackson’s failure to disclose her husband’s malpractice consulting income for more than a decade. Under federal law, judges are legally required to identify the source of earned income exceeding $1,000 earned by their spouse. However, the law exempts self-employed spouses, in which case only the nature of the business or profession needs to be reported.
In 2011, when she was nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Justice Jackson disclosed two legal medical malpractice consulting clients who paid her husband more than $1,000. However, in subsequent filings, she repeatedly failed to disclose her husband’s income from medical malpractice consulting fees.
According to the letter from the Center for Renewing America, Justice Jackson’s husband’s income from medical malpractice consulting fees does not qualify for the “self-employment” exception. The letter argues that the Judicial Conference should refer Jackson’s possible ethics violations to Attorney General Merrick Garland for investigation and possible civil enforcement.
The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (EIGA) requires judges, including Justice Jackson, to identify the “source of items of earned income earned by a spouse from any person which exceeds $1,000.” The letter notes that in her amended 2020 disclosure form, Justice Jackson admitted that some of her previous disclosures had omitted her husband’s income from medical malpractice consulting fees. However, she did not give any details on which years were omitted.
Vought, who headed up the Office of Management and Budget under the Trump administration, suggests that Jackson may have committed ethics violations by willfully omitting required income disclosures. The Center for Renewing America believes that her possible violations should be investigated by the Attorney General and potentially subject to civil enforcement.
Overall, this ethics complaint against Justice Jackson does not bode well for her reputation, and it remains to be seen how the investigation and potential enforcement will proceed.
