The Supreme Court will begin using software to scan litigants’ filings to identify potential conflicts of interest that might require justices to step aside from cases, the court said Tuesday.
Parties before the court will be required to list stock-ticker symbols and make other disclosures to support the automated reviews. The software, which was developed by court staff, will compare information about parties and attorneys in a case with a list created by each justice’s chambers.
The new rules will take effect in mid-March.
Supreme Court justices are required to recuse themselves from cases in which they own stock in a party in the case. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. are the only justices who own individual stocks, according to financial disclosures.
The announcement comes a little over a month after Alito recused himself four days before oral arguments in an environmental case. Alito owned stock in the parent company of an oil and gas company that was involved in the proceedings in the lower courts.
Alito initially declined to recuse himself from the case in June after Burlington Resources Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of ConocoPhillips, formally withdrew from a petition asking the Supreme Court to hear the case. Alito holds stock in ConocoPhillips.
Later filings in the case revealed that Burlington remained a party in the underlying litigation in federal district court. When that was disclosed, Alito said he was stepping aside from the case.
In that case, the court is deciding whether Chevron can move a case to federal court after a state court required the oil company to pay $745 million in damages to a Louisiana parish to help restore coastal wetlands that the community says were damaged by oil drilling.
The Supreme Court announced a new code of ethics in 2023, after media reports about benefactors paying for lavish gifts and travel for some of the justices.
Gabe Roth, executive director of the court watchdog Fix the Court, said in a statement that the software is a positive step but not a major improvement since lower-court judges have been required to use software-based conflict screening for 20 years.
“If the justices wanted to institute a more effective change related to their ethics and their investments, they’d agree as a Court not to hold any stocks during their tenures, since all it does is cause unnecessary recusals,” Roth said. “An investor-justice could own a blended fund, mutual fund or ETF and reap the same benefits with a far reduced conflict exposure. In fact, seven of the nine justices have made this very calculation.”
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