The Supreme Court’s potential conflict-of-interest problem

The potential conflicts of interest keep stacking up for the Supreme Court. Today we break down the recent reports about issues such as luxury vacations gifted to Clarence Thomas and the occupation of John Roberts’s wife. 

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First, it was revealed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been accepting luxury gifts from a Republican mega-donor. Then, Justice Neal Gorsuch sold his home to a lawyer whose cases appear in front of the Supreme Court. And now, Justice John Roberts is under scrutiny because his wife makes money as a legal recruiter, pairing lawyers up with law firms. In each of these cases, critics say the justices failed to appropriately disclose these financial gains. 

Journalist Robert Barnes walks us through the details of these conflict-of-interest cases, what the current disclosure requirements entail, and the options legal experts have posed for how to make a more ethical Supreme Court.