Press Releases

Washington, D.C. - Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Chairman Hank Johnson (D-GA) issued the following joint statement on the Wall Street Journal's report that over 100 federal judges failed to recuse themselves from lawsuits involving companies in which they or their family held a financial interest: 

"The Wall Street Journal found that at least 131 federal judges unlawfully and unethically failed to recuse themselves from cases where they and their families had a financial interest.  This would appear to constitute a massive failure of not just individual judges but of the entire system that is ostensibly in place to prevent this illegal conduct.  In the coming weeks, we plan on reintroducing an updated version of the 21st Century Courts Act, our legislation to modernize the judiciary’s ethics, disclosure, and transparency rules.  The Judiciary Committee will also conduct rigorous oversight, including public hearings by the subcommittee on the Courts, to get some answers for the breaches identified in the Wall Street Journal's report."