Congress may require justices to disclose their finances and may state its view that knowing falsification is impeachable, but it cannot make impeachment automatic. These sections are drafted around that line.
Section 1. Short title and findings
(a) Short title. This Act may be cited as the “Supreme Court Transparency, Oversight, and Probity (STOP) Corruption Act.”
(b) Findings. Congress finds the following:
- Article III, section 1 provides that Justices of the Supreme Court hold their offices during good behavior.
- Public confidence in the Supreme Court depends on accurate and complete public knowledge of the financial interests, gifts, and reimbursements of its Justices.
- Title I of the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 has long required financial disclosure by Justices and other Article III judges, and the Justices have complied with it, while the Court has not decided whether Congress may impose those requirements on it.
- Congress has enacted laws governing the Court’s size, budget, jurisdiction, quorum, oath, and recusal, and may exercise its power under Article I, section 8, clause 18 to enact reasonable disclosure requirements that do not impair the Court’s exercise of its judicial power.
- A reporting requirement does not decide any case, direct any judgment, or restrict the Court’s constitutional functions.
- Existing procedures for reviewing the disclosures of Justices have not consistently produced timely and complete public reporting.
(c) Sense of Congress. It is the sense of Congress that the knowing and willful submission of a materially false financial disclosure report, or the knowing and willful refusal to file a required report after notice and an opportunity to cure, by a Justice of the Supreme Court may constitute a high crime or misdemeanor within the meaning of Article II, section 4 of the Constitution. Nothing in this subsection determines whether any particular conduct warrants impeachment, which is committed by the Constitution to the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Section 2. Definitions and scope of disclosure
(a) Definitions. In this Act:
- Covered Justice means the Chief Justice and each Associate Justice of the Supreme Court serving on the date of enactment, and each person appointed afterward.
- Covered period means, for each Covered Justice, the period beginning five years before the date on which the Justice took the judicial oath as a Justice of the Supreme Court and ending on the date of the report.
- Reportable item means any item required to be reported by a judicial officer under section 13104 of title 5, United States Code, including income, gifts, reimbursements, travel and hospitality, assets, transactions, liabilities, positions, and agreements, together with the items listed in subsection (c).
- Panel means the review panel established under section 4(b).
(b) Initial comprehensive report. Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment, each Covered Justice shall file with the Administrative Office of the United States Courts a report covering all reportable items for the period beginning on the date of the Justice’s oath. Not later than 12 months after the date of enactment, each Covered Justice shall file a supplemental report covering the five years before that oath. The Administrative Office may grant one extension of up to 90 days for good cause. A Justice appointed after enactment shall file both reports within 12 months after taking the judicial oath.
(c) Additional items. The report shall also include, for the covered period:
- the value of any in-kind benefit, including use of aircraft, vessels, or lodging, from any person other than a family member, regardless of whether it qualifies as a gift under other law;
- any interest in a private entity in which the Justice, or the Justice’s spouse or dependent child, held an ownership or income interest of more than [$1,000]; and
- any sale or transfer of real property to a person or entity that was a party or amicus curiae in a case decided by the Court within three years of the transaction, as shown on the Court’s public docket.
(d) Spouses and dependents. Reporting for a spouse or dependent child shall follow section 13104 of title 5, United States Code, and need not include information that the Justice certifies in good faith is not known and cannot reasonably be obtained.
(e) Security redactions. The Administrative Office shall redact information from public posting to the extent the Judicial Conference determines that disclosure would endanger the safety of a Justice or a family member, consistent with the Daniel Anderl Judicial Security and Privacy Act of 2022. The Administrative Office shall preserve and make available to the Panel the unredacted report.
(f) Annual reports and public posting. After the initial report, each Covered Justice shall file annual reports under existing law. The Administrative Office shall post each report, as redacted under subsection (e), on a searchable public website within 90 days after filing.
(g) Pre-appointment years. The portion of any report covering years before appointment is a report of historical information. No penalty attaches to the content of any pre-appointment transaction itself, only to a refusal to report it or a false report about it.
Section 3. Certification and referral to Congress
(a) Grounds for certification. The Panel shall issue a Certified Finding of Willful Noncompliance regarding a Covered Justice if, after the procedure in section 4, it determines by clear and convincing evidence that the Justice:
- failed to file a report required by this Act within 30 days after written notice of a missed deadline; or
- knowingly and willfully made a materially false statement or omitted a material item in a report required by this Act, and did not correct the report under section 4(d).
(b) Transmission. Within 30 days after a Certified Finding becomes final under section 4(g), the Panel shall transmit it, with the complete record, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chair and Ranking Member of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House, and the Majority and Minority Leaders and the Chair and Ranking Member of the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate. The Panel shall make a redacted version public within 30 days after transmission.
(c) Effect of certification. A Certified Finding:
- is a report to Congress and is not a determination that any conduct is a high crime or misdemeanor;
- does not remove, suspend, or discipline a Justice, does not affect the Justice’s authority to participate in any case, and does not alter the validity of any decision of the Court; and
- does not require either House to take any action.
(d) Separate remedies preserved. Nothing in this section limits civil or criminal enforcement of the disclosure laws under other provisions of law, including section 13106 of title 5, United States Code.
(e) Failure of the Panel to act. [Option A: If the Panel has not issued a determination within 270 days after receiving a complaint that meets the requirements of section 4(a), the Panel shall transmit the complaint and its record to the committees listed in subsection (b) with a statement of the reason for the delay.] [Option B: omit.]
Section 4. Notice, response, cure, and record
(a) Complaints. The Administrative Office, the Judicial Conference’s Committee on Financial Disclosure, or any person may submit a written complaint to the Panel identifying the report and the alleged omission or falsity with reasonable specificity. The Panel may dismiss a complaint that does not meet this standard.
(b) Review panel. The Panel shall consist of three members selected by lot from a roster of senior circuit judges and retired Justices of the Supreme Court who consent to serve, none of whom has a financial, familial, or employment relationship with the Justice under review. No sitting Justice may serve on the Panel or participate in selecting its members. [Alternative: the Panel’s functions are performed by the Judicial Conference’s Committee on Financial Disclosure, with the referral in section 3(e) if it fails to act.]
(c) Notice and response. Before any finding, the Panel shall give the Justice written notice stating each alleged violation and the evidence relied on. The Justice shall have 45 days to respond in writing, to submit evidence, and to request a hearing. The Panel shall hold a hearing if requested, with the right to counsel and to present and examine witnesses.
(d) Cure of honest error. A Justice who files a corrected report within the response period in subsection (c), or who files an amendment before receiving notice of a complaint, shall not be subject to a finding under section 3(a)(2) on the basis of the omitted or incorrect item. Filing a corrected report is not an admission of willfulness.
(e) Standard and record. The Panel shall make findings of fact and conclusions of law in a written decision stating each basis for any finding. The decision shall be supported by clear and convincing evidence. A mistake, inadvertence, or good-faith reliance on professional advice is not willful.
(f) Confidentiality. Proceedings shall be confidential until a Certified Finding is issued or the complaint is dismissed, except as needed to satisfy section 3(e).
(g) Review. Before a Certified Finding becomes final, the Justice may request review of the decision on the record by a second panel constituted under subsection (b), whose members did not serve on the first. Review is limited to whether the Panel followed this section and whether the finding is supported by clear and convincing evidence. The second panel shall decide within 60 days. A Certified Finding is not otherwise subject to judicial review.
Section 5. Expedited consideration, construction, effective date, and severability
(a) Rulemaking of each House. This subsection is enacted as an exercise of the rulemaking power of the House of Representatives and the Senate, with full recognition of the constitutional right of either House to change its rules at any time. Each Certified Finding transmitted under section 3(b) shall be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary of the House, which shall, within 60 days, report to the House whether it will initiate an inquiry and, if not, the reasons. Nothing in this subsection limits the power of either House to determine its own proceedings.
(b) Rule of construction. Nothing in this Act:
- limits the power of the House of Representatives to impeach, or of the Senate to try, any officer of the United States;
- establishes, defines, or limits the grounds for impeachment or removal; or
- conditions a Justice’s tenure on compliance with this Act, other than through the constitutional impeachment process.
(c) Effective date and application. This Act takes effect on the date of enactment. Penalties and findings under section 3 apply only to a failure to file, or a false statement or omission, occurring after the date of enactment.
(d) Severability. If any provision of this Act, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of the Act, and its application to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected. In particular, invalidity of section 2(a)(2) as applied to the five years before appointment shall not affect the requirements for the period after appointment.
Drafting notes
The provisions above avoid “automatic impeachment” because Article I, sections 2, 3 and 5 leave the impeachment trigger, trial, and procedure to the House and Senate. The table lists the open choices and where the constitutional risk sits.
| Choice | Lower-risk option | Higher-risk option |
|---|---|---|
| Who reviews filings | Panel of senior circuit judges and retired Justices, with sitting Justices excluded | Executive-branch officer or DOJ |
| Consequence of a finding | Certified referral to Congress, no effect on tenure | Suspension, recusal, or removal (conflicts with the Good Behavior Clause) |
| Pre-appointment years | Reporting duty only, penalties for false or missing reports | Penalties tied to pre-enactment conduct (ex post facto and retroactivity arguments) |
| Intent standard | Knowing and willful, clear and convincing evidence | Strict liability for errors (invites due process challenge) |
| Scope of “complete” | Existing statutory categories plus defined additions | Open-ended “all financial records” (privacy and overbreadth challenges) |
| Judicial review | Internal second-panel review on the record (section 4(g)), with no court review | Review in a court of appeals, which puts a lower court over a Justice and invites a challenge that reaches the Court itself |
Items to verify before circulating: the dollar thresholds in section 2(c), and whether the Judicial Conference’s existing committee structure should replace or support the Panel. Also check existing bill names before choosing a title, since several Supreme Court ethics bills are already pending.
Relationship to existing rules. Before circulating, add a short comparison of this bill with the Court’s own code of conduct (adopted November 13, 2023, with no enforcement mechanism and no disclosure requirement beyond existing law) and the Judicial Conference’s March 2023 change that narrowed the personal hospitality exemption in gift reporting for judges and Justices. State where this bill goes beyond them, and consider adding a finding that describes the gap accurately. These points were checked against secondary sources (a Congressional Research Service summary and the judiciary’s March 2023 announcement), so confirm them against the primary documents before circulating.
Splitting the bill. If enactment, not messaging, is the goal, consider two bills. A narrow first bill would carry section 2 (the reporting scope, phase-in, security redactions, and public posting). A second bill would carry sections 3 to 5 (the Panel, certification, and referral), which are the more contested parts. The first can attract bipartisan support, and the second can move later or serve as the aspirational text. The “STOP Corruption” title suits a messaging bill but would likely cost votes on a bill meant to pass.