Supreme Court Justices Have Financial Interest In Major Tax Case

John Roberts and Samuel Alito own shares of companies that could score billions in tax relief from the outcome of Moore v. United States.

by Julia Rock, The Lever

Two Supreme Court justices own shares of companies that could see tens of billions of dollars in tax relief from the outcome of a case that the high court will rule on next term. While the justices have not recused themselves from the case and their financial interests don’t explicitly violate existing judicial ethics laws, progressives and court watchdogs are demanding their recusal.

According to a review of public company documents and judicial financial disclosures, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito together own shares in 19 companies that could see combined tax relief of more than $30 billion if the court issues a broad ruling in the Moore v. United States tax case and strikes down a one-time corporate tax imposed in 2017.

United States Supreme Court building is located in Washington, D.C., USA.

“In Moore, the Roberts Court could decide with the stroke of a pen to simultaneously forgive big business decades of tax dues in the billions; increase the federal deficit; jeopardize future public revenue and essential social programs; aggravate the disadvantages facing domestic, taxpaying competitors; escalate these multinational companies’ already sizeable after-tax profits; and further enrich their shareholders,” notes a new report from the Roosevelt Institute and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which conducted the analysis of Roberts and Alito’s financial interests in the case.