The Center for Public Integrity examined the three most recent years of financial disclosure reports filed by 255 of the 258 judges who sit on the nation’s 13 appellate circuits. In all, the Center identified 24 cases where judges owned stock in a company with a case before them. In two other instances, judges had financial ties with law firms working on cases over which they presided, bringing the total to 26 conflicts.
Federal law prohibits judges from sitting on cases in which they have a financial interest. Plus, the code of conduct established by the court system repeats the prohibition. This is not the first time such behavior has been found; the Washington Post found the same behavior in an investigation of 2006.
Interestingly, judges face no formal punishment for breaking these rules.
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