More than 130 judges have reportedly presided over court cases in which they had a financial conflict of interest, according to a new investigation by the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper found that since 2010, 685 court cases were presided over by judges who should have recused themselves, and two-thirds of the judges that participated in those cases made judgments that were in their own or their family’s financial interest. When the Journal reached out to the judges who had violated the law by failing to recuse themselves, 56 of them notified parties in lawsuits in which they should have disclosed their conflict of interest. Many of the judges claimed they were unaware of any conflict and expressed contrition, while others declined to comment. Several parties that lost their court battles are now petitioning to reopen their cases—this time with a judge that has no financial ties and follows the 1974 law that bans judges from hearing cases where they have a “legal or equitable interest, however small.”
