Fix the Court’s Cortez Collins and Gabe Roth have an op-ed today in Bloomberg Law about the recent Judge Mascott scandal and how to fix it.

We argue that although Mascott’s behavior was clearly unethical, the current, underwhelming financial disclosure system shares some of the blame.

If litigants and the public lack critical information about a judge’s financial ties, how can we (absent some good reporting) accurately assess their impartiality?

We believe modernized FDRs should require judges to disclose more about their and their spouses’ business interests and other economic ties, including the amount of time a judge spends on these interests and the clients whose payments constitute a significant portion of a judicial spouse’s take-home pay.

We conclude:

“Identifying only assets and income may tell the public how judges and their families make money. But a modern judicial ethics system should provide enough information to understand the significant relationships through which that money is made, not to mention details of a judge’s own investment — their time. The judiciary shouldn’t wait for the next controversy to make the change.”

We look forward to seeing how the complaint against Judge Mascott progresses and, since we only recently received the Mascott Nominee Disclosure and Statement of Net Worth from the Judiciary Committee, we’ll likely reup this letter in Jan. 2027.