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Americas+1 212 318 2000
EMEA+44 20 7330 7500
Asia Pacific+65 6212 1000
By Suzanne Monyak
Federal judges on the nation’s trial and appeals courts have accepted private flights, football tickets, and thousands of dollars in cash gifts, according to an analysis of disclosure data by a judicial transparency watchdog.
The study released Monday by Fix the Court comes amid rising public scrutiny over gifts accepted by federal judges—especially Supreme Court justices—following reporting that revealed previously undisclosed gifts accepted by Justice Clarence Thomas and others.
The most expensive gift reported among the 75 highlighted in the analysis, excluding a judicial reception, was a $24,000 cash gift in 2022, given to Chief Judge Timothy Batten of the Atlanta-based US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by Medicraft Enterprises.
Reached by phone, Batten said Medicraft is a medical device company owned by a close friend that hasn’t had and wouldn’t have business before the court. Batten also received a $4,000 gift from Medicraft in 2021.
Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, said it’s rare to see cash gifts on judges’ financial disclosures.
The judicial code of ethics prohibits judges from accepting gifts from individuals or entities with business with the court, or whose interest “may be substantially affected” by court action.
Judges may accept free travel and lodging for certain educational or legal events, books and resource materials, and gifts from friends and family, where the judge wouldn’t preside over any legal matter involving them.
Reimbursements valued over $480 must be reported in judges’ annual disclosures. The judiciary has been slow to post disclosures, leading to lags in reporting and a number of 2023 disclosure reports still publicly unavailable.
Brookings Institution senior fellow Russell Wheeler, who follows the judiciary, questioned if the 75 gifts highlighted in the analysis were necessarily a representative sample, but agreed with Fix the Court’s assessment that certain disclosures highlighted were “problematic.”
He also said the relatively small number of examples overall compared to the number of disclosures filed by some 2,000 judges over three years may “suggest that most are complying” with the spirit and the letter of the regulation.
Bloomberg Law independently verified the disclosures included in the Fix the Court analysis. Some judges offered more details in their disclosure reports than others.
Free tickets were among the most common gifts accepted by judges, according to Fix the Court analysis, which compiled a list of 75 gifts gleaned from keyword searches into the public disclosure database for 2021, 2022 and 2023. Examples included football tickets from judges’ alma maters and local teams.
Judge Charles Wilson of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reported a reimbursement for two football tickets from the University of Notre Dame, where he earned his undergraduate and law degrees, while visiting for a Notre Dame Law School Advisory Council meeting.
The University of Georgia Athletic Association was a popular gift-giver. The association gave tickets to UGA football games to university alumni Judge Steve Jones of the Northern District of Georgia; Judge Lisa Wood of the Southern District of Georgia; and Judge Julie Carnes of the Eleventh Circuit. Carnes is a senior judge no longer hearing cases.
The university also gifted championship rings, each worth $415, to Jones and Wood. Jones and Wood also listed themselves as a board member for the University of Georgia Athletic Association in their 2021 and 2022 disclosures.
Other gifted tickets to judges included those to the Honda Classic Golf Tournament, the New York Philharmonic, and a box seat to a Florida State football game, as well as other unspecified concert and sports tickets.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also reported receiving concert tickets from Beyonce valued at $3,712 in her own disclosure released earlier this month.
Several judges also reported attending gifted vacations.
Batten reported a week at a condo in Amelia Island worth $5,000.
Judge Aleta Trauger of the Middle District of Tennessee reported a reimbursement for a roundtrip flight on a private plane, one night in a hotel, and meals for a “group Christmas dinner” in Jackson, Wyoming, with former Tennessee Gov. Philip Bredesen (D) and his wife.
Judge Daniel Crabtree of the District of Kansas disclosed “travel and golf outings with close personal friend,” worth $4,100, for 2021. The judge noted in his disclosure that his friend and any associated entities are on his recusal list and always have been.
Judge L. Scott Coogler of the Northern District of Alabama, reported receiving a 1964 Chevrolet pickup from one person, valued at $5,000, and free tree removal services from another valued at $4,000.
Members of Congress are prohibited from accepting more than $100 worth of gifts from a single donor in any calendar year. They may accept gifts from close friends, but gifts valued at over $250 must be approved first. Waivers are available for special events, such as weddings.
To contact the reporter on this story: Suzanne Monyak at smonyak@bloombergindustry.com
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Seth Stern at sstern@bloomberglaw.com; John Crawley at jcrawley@bloomberglaw.com
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