When Linda Wolicki-Gables and her husband appealed a lawsuit all the way to the second-highest court in the nation against Johnson & Johnson over a malfunctioning medication pump that had been implanted in her body, the couple had no idea that one of the judges who decided their case had a financial stake in the giant multinational company.
Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge James Hill owned as much as $100,000 in Johnson & Johnson stock when he and two other judges ruled against the Gables’ appeal in the precedent-setting case.
The Center for Public Integrity also found that Hill ruled on three other appeals in which he owned stock in companies that came before him, violating clear rules governing the federal courts. In all four instances, the court ruling favored his financial interest. In a statement released by the court, Hill said he was not aware of those stock holdings at the time due to the complexity of his family’s trusts.
The Center uncovered the conflict by examining the three most recent years of financial disclosure reports filed by 255 of the 258 judges who sit on the nation’s 13 appellate circuits. In all, the Center identified 24 cases where judges owned stock in a company with a case before them. In two other instances, the judges had financial ties with law firms working on cases over which they presided.
After the Center notified the judges of its findings, 16 judges had letters sent to the parties in all 26 of those cases disclosing the financial conflicts of interest uncovered by the Center in the months-long investigation. The letters are the first step in possibly reopening the cases.
The violations occurred even though clear rules regarding conflicts of interest exist. Federal judges may not sit on cases in which they have a financial interest, according to a federal law. A similar rule is also in place in the code of conduct established by the court system. Judges have been warned before about not participating in such cases. Following a Washington Post investigation in 2006, the courts even added a computerized screening process to help judges avoid such conflicts.
Yet the problems continue.
The Center’s findings point to a larger issue of accountability—or lack thereof—in the federal court system. Judges face no formal punishment for breaking these rules.....continued....
