The wife of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts made $10.3 million in commissions from elite law firms.
Business Insider reported:
When I found out that the spouse of the chief justice was soliciting business from law firms, I knew immediately that it was wrong,” the whistleblower, Kendal B. Price, who worked alongside Jane Roberts at the legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, told Insider in an interview. “During the time I was there, I was discouraged from ever raising the issue. And I realized that even the law firms who were Jane’s clients had nowhere to go. They were being asked by the spouse of the chief justice for business worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there was no one to complain to. Most of these firms were likely appearing or seeking to appear before the Supreme Court. It’s natural that they’d do anything they felt was necessary to be competitive.”
Roberts’ apparent $10.3 million in compensation puts her toward the top of the payscale for legal headhunters. Price’s disclosures, which were filed under federal whistleblower-protection laws and are now in the hands of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, add to the mounting questions about how Supreme Court justices and their families financially benefit from their special status, an area that Senate Democrats are vowing to investigate after a series of disclosure lapses by the justices themselves.
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In other words, no elite law firm with business before the Supreme Court was going to turn down a the wife of the Chief Justice. Jane Roberts changed careers and became a legal headhunter two years after her husband became the Chief Justice, so this isn’t a job she held before her husband’s elevation on the Supreme Court.
For those keeping score, this is now four of the six conservative Supreme Court justices who have ethics issues. Thomas, Gorsuch, Alito, and Roberts have all been reported to have some ethical conflicts of interest. Brett Kavanaugh might not be on the Supreme Court if it were not for Senate Republicans withholding evidence from their investigation into sexual assault allegations made against him.
The Supreme Court isn’t going to fix itself, and the SCOTUS majority has been corrupted. The nation has a crisis in the highest court in the land, and Congress must act.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
