A Wall Street Journal investigation found that federal judges around the nation have violated U.S. law and judicial ethics by overseeing nearly 700 court cases involving companies in which they or their family owned stock.
As a result of the Journal’s reporting, judges in more than 300 cases have notified courts that they presided in the lawsuits improperly and that the cases are eligible to be reopened.
HOW MANY JUDGES ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
In the most expansive investigation of judicial stockholdings in the U.S., the Journal revealed that 131 federal judges improperly heard 685 court cases between 2010 and 2018 in which they or their family members owned shares of companies that were plaintiffs or defendants in the litigation. Two of the judges sat on appellate courts; the other 129 were district judges, also called trial judges. The Journal’s review examined civil cases.
About two-thirds of federal district judges disclosed holdings of individual stocks, and nearly one of every five of those who did improperly heard at least one case involving a company in which they or their families owned a stake.
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