Federal judges will soon face tougher financial disclosure requirements

• The House passed a bill that would subject federal judges to tougher disclosure requirements.
• This comes after a 2021 Wall Street Journal investigation into federal judges' personal finances.

The US House passed bipartisan legislation Wednesday that would subject Supreme Court justices and federal judges to tougher financial disclosure requirements.

The measure, known as the Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act, would require federal judicial officers, bankruptcy judges, and magistrate judges to report their financial transactions of stocks or other forms of securities worth more than $1,000 within 45 days of that transaction.

It would also require the judiciary to create an online database where the public can access this information in order to create more transparency on whether judges have a conflict of interest in a case they are presiding over.

"All federal officials should be held, at least, to the same standard of transparency as members of Congress," said Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican of Texas, adding that the new rules "will help bolster trust in our judicial system."

US lawmakers and senior congressional staffers are also subjected to similar financial disclosure requirements under the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, also known as the STOCK Act.

Government ethics watchdogs, including the Project On Government Oversight, applauded the legislation's passage.

The bill, approved by a voice vote and already passed in the Senate, garnered bipartisan support. The measure is now headed to President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it into law.

The bill's passage follows a 2021 Wall Street Journal investigation that found that more than 130 federal judges broke the law by overseeing cases in which they or their family members had a potential financial interest.

The timing of the passage of the bill is also notable because Congress is actively debating whether to ban federal lawmakers and their spouses from trading individual stocks.

Insider's ongoing "Conflicted Congress" investigation that found that dozens of lawmakers and at least 182 senior-level congressional staffers have violated the STOCK Act by failing to properly disclose their own stock transactions.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have together introduced several measures to ban members of Congress and their spouses from holding or trading individual stocks. Earlier in April, the Committee on House Administration conducted a public hearing on the matter, and lawmakers continue to debate next steps.

The passage of Courthouse Ethics and Transparency Act could potentially build more momentum for lawmakers to pass a measure to prohibit members of Congress from trading individual stocks while in office in order to prevent conflicts of interest.