Jane Roberts, the wife of Chief Justice John Roberts, made more than $10 million in commissions over an eight-year stretch where she matched top lawyers with elite law firms—including some that had cases before the Supreme Court—according to documents obtained by Insider, as concerns grow about justices possibly having unreported conflicts of interest.
Roberts earned the eight-figure total between 2007 and 2014 while working at the recruiting company Major, Lindsey & Africa, according to a reported whistleblower complaint from Kendal Price, Roberts’ former colleague.
Price submitted the complaint to Congress in December, arguing Roberts’ immense commission payments—reportedly at the high end for what even top legal recruiters earn—were largely due to her husband’s role as chief justice.
Price argued the earnings should be public knowledge and subject to oversight since Roberts worked with firms that had clients before the Supreme Court, telling Insider in an interview he “knew immediately that it was wrong” for Roberts to be associating with the firms.
Price sued Roberts and the recruiting company in 2014, claiming they penalized him for trying to promote “diverse in-house candidates” as the only Black recruiter at the business, but an arbitrator tossed the lawsuit.
John Roberts submitted financial disclosure documents identifying his wife’s income as “salary” rather than commission from top law firms, which Price argued in an affidavit is “misleading”—a supporting memo from Pace University law professor Bennett Gershman added: “Characterizing Mrs. Roberts' commissions as 'salary' is not merely factually incorrect; it is incorrect as a matter of law,” according to Insider.
The New York Times first reported the existence of the whistleblower complaint in January, when a Supreme Court spokesman told the paper the chief justice is "attentive to ethical constraints" and complies with financial disclosure laws.
“Friends of John were mostly friends of Jane, and while it certainly did not harm her access to top people to have John as her spouse, I never saw her ‘use’ that inappropriately,” Mark Jungers, another ofJane Roberts’ former colleagues, told Insider.
The Senate and House Judiciary committees are now in possession of Price’s complaint.
The Supreme Court has come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks over reports suggesting potentially undisclosed conflicts of interest. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas has attracted the greatest controversy, after ProPublica reported earlier this month he did not disclose that he accepted luxury trips, including private jet flights, from Republican megadonor Harlan Crow, while CNN later reported he also did not tell of a real estate deal he made with Crow. Politico then reported earlier this week that conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch did not disclose a real estate transaction he made with the head of a law firm that practiced before the court. The justices have denied wrongdoing, and the court has pushed back on oversight. John Roberts on Tuesday turned down a request to appear before the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee to speak on the conflict of interest issues, writing he made his decision “in light of separation of powers concerns and the importance of preserving judicial independence.”
The Supreme Court does not have an official code of ethics, unlike lower courts. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Angus King (I-Maine) introduced a bipartisan bill Wednesday requiring the court to adopt a code of ethics.
Chief Justice Roberts’ Wife Is Latest Supreme Court Spouse To Spark Ethics Concerns (Forbes)