
#1 Spouses: Being married isn’t unjust. However, ProPublica found several judges exploiting marital loopholes. Take the Canadys. Florida Rep. Jennifer Canady co-sponsored an abortion ban bill. Her husband, Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles Canady, helped it go through. If she becomes House speaker in 2028, how many of her bills will end up in her husband’s court?
#2 Children: Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine broke his promise to recuse from cases in which his father, then attorney general and now governor, was personally involved. The result? Gerrymandering to disenfranchise Black and Muslim voters.
#3 "Friends”: This year, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially legalized bribery, allowing its justices to receive gifts and payments after a decision, not before. Republican-appointed Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito had already failed to disclose their billionaire-funded jaunts. Democratic-appointed Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer also took lavish trips, courtesy of billionaires.
Reuters found in 2020 that thousands of judges had broken some law but remained on the bench. After Trump named 234 federal judges and three Supreme Court Justices in his first term, we could see a Trump-appointed majority on the Supreme Court after his second.
Judges may represent “authority” and “fairness,” but they’re also people who can act in their interests, not ours. As we witness the next four years, remember that the playing field is already dirty.