Demand Justice Statement on Provision in NDAA Reducing Transparency for Justices

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 8, 2022

CONTACT: [email protected]

WASHINGTON, DC— Following reports that a provision that could block disclosures about the employment of spouses of Supreme Court justices has been added to the National Defense Authorization Act, Demand Justice Executive Director Brian Fallon released the following statement:

“Although this provision was written to achieve the important goal of providing security to judges and their families, the overly broad language could have the unintended consequence of further shielding Supreme Court justices from legitimate scrutiny. Just this year alone, there have been multiple instances when information about the outside employment of justices’ spouses proved critical to understanding potential conflicts of interest. We need more transparency for conflicts of interest with justices and their spouses, not less. It is frustrating enough that Senate Democrats have not yet launched any formal investigations into the multiple ethics scandals involving Supreme Court justices – with this provision, they may now be inadvertently helping those justices further conceal their entanglements.”

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