The whiff of corruption emanating from the U.S. Supreme Court got a lot stronger in recent days, as the traditional media continues to delve deeper into the story of how the court has been captured by far-right dark money and extremely lax oversight by a chief justice. The reporting shows that Clarence Thomas isn’t the only right-wing justice living high on the hog thanks to some extremist billionaires, or to cash in on their vaunted position.
That includes Chief Justice John Roberts. Business Insider has reported exactly how lucrative his spouse’s work as a head-hunter for corporate law firms has been for the Roberts’ household. In 2007, two years after John Roberts was confirmed as the Chief Justice by former President George W. Bush, Jane Roberts stepped away from her role as an attorney to pivot to recruiting big-time lawyers for big-time law firms. From 2007 to 2014, Jane Roberts was working at the legal recruiting firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, where she reportedly earned $10.3 million in commissions for recruiting, on top of her salary.
In a November 2021 interview with Law Dragon, she said, “There are many paths to the good life. … There are so many things to do if you’re open to change and opportunity.”
The New York Times first reported on the dubious ethics around Jane Roberts’ job recruiting attorneys. Although they didn’t include the specifics on the $10.3 million in commissions, they pretty clearly laid out the case that Mrs. Roberts was getting an awful lot of high-powered lawyers placed at high-powered law firms that conducted a great deal of business with Mr. Roberts’ court. Furthermore, it demonstrated that Mr. Roberts not only failed to recuse himself from those cases, he failed to declare Mrs. Roberts’ income from commissions in his disclosure forms, citing only her salary with the firm.
Ah, the good life.