Press Releases
Chief Justice Roberts’ Wife Made Millions From Elite Law Firms
New revelation underscores urgent need for Supreme Court reform
Washington, DC — Today, new whistleblower documents revealed that Jane Roberts, who is married to Chief Justice John Roberts, made $10.3 million in commissions from elite law firms. At least one firm argued a case before Chief Justice Roberts after paying his wife hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The news is just the latest in a long pattern of troubling Supreme Court ethics issues, underscoring urgent calls for court reform. Chief Justice Roberts has refused to take action to address the unprecedented issues.
Not only has Chief Justice Roberts completely dodged responsibility by refusing to take action after a series of Supreme Court scandals — he’s now at the center of yet another serious ethics issue. Our nation’s highest court should not have the lowest ethical standards. We need urgent reform to restore public trust in the Court.”
Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig.
Insider highlights:
“During [an] eight-year stretch, according to internal records from her employer, Jane Roberts generated a whopping $10.3 million in commissions, paid out by corporations and law firms for placing high-dollar lawyers with them.
That eye-popping figure comes from records in a whistleblower complaint filed by a disgruntled former colleague of Roberts, who says that as the spouse of the most powerful judge in the United States, the income she earns from law firms who practice before the Court should be subject to public scrutiny.”
“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.”
“The news of Jane Roberts’s outsized earnings and the allegation that she traded on her husband’s role comes as the Supreme Court faces a broader crisis of legitimacy. Only 25 percent of Americans say they have “a great deal” of confidence in the court, the lowest since Gallup started asking the question in 1974. The court has been rocked in recent weeks by a series of revelations about the behavior of sitting justices, including transactions and relationships that could lead to discipline in almost any other professional context.”
Today, Accountable.US launched a mobile billboard to hold Chief Justice Roberts accountable for his refusal to take action regarding the recent pattern of serious Supreme Court ethics issues. See the billboard HERE.
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