The Supreme Court announced Tuesday it updated its rules of the court in an effort to help justices avoid conflicts of interest with parties before them.
The rule changes, effective March 16, will require parties in petitions filed with the Supreme Court to list the stock ticker symbol of any company that is a party to the case, among other changes, which “will serve in addition to existing conflict-checking procedures in chambers.”
“Most of the changes are designed to support operation of newly developed software that will assist in identifying potential conflicts for the Justices, and the revisions impose a number of new requirements upon filers to support the software,” the high court said in a press release.
The updated rules also state that “where a respondent is a nongovernmental corporation and it has a parent corporation or a publicly held company owns 10% or more of the corporation’s stock,” those affiliations must be reported in the brief or the waiver.
The rule changes are “designed to support the Court’s electronic conflict-checking system by requiring a respondent to correct any deficiencies in the Parties to the Proceeding section of the petition, and by including information about corporate parents,” per the high court.
The changes come as some justices have recused themselves from recent cases because of their financial holdings, with Justice Samuel Alito recusing himself from a case involving Louisiana coastal erosion because of his holdings in ConocoPhillips earlier this year.
Alito recused himself ahead of January’s arguments in Chevron USA v. Plaquemines Parish, with the high court’s clerk saying in a letter that Alito believed Burlington Resources Oil and Gas Company, which is owned by ConocoPhillips, had removed itself from the case, but that “later briefing, however, noted that Burlington remained a party in the district court.”
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The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has also faced criticism from Democrats over reports of undisclosed gifts given to justices in recent years, with Democrats demanding reforms to the high court. The Supreme Court announced it would adopt an ethics code in November 2023, but criticisms from Democrats have not relented.
The justices will return to the bench Friday when they are expected to announce at least one ruling, followed by oral arguments scheduled for the first three days of next week.