Watchdogs Want Judicial Spouse ‘Disclosure Loophole’ Closed

Government and judicial watchdog groups are urging Congress to close a “disclosure loophole” they say allows potential judicial conflicts to fall through the cracks.

Under the Ethics in Government Act, federal judges and justices currently only need to list their spouse’s employer—not their clients or amount of compensation they received.

That “means a judicial spouse could earn untold sums, via legal or consulting work, from entities that have cases before their husband or wife, and the public would be none the wiser, so long as the entities paid their employer and not the spouse directly,” one of the groups, Fix ...