Redacted Financial Disclosures of Judges. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL.
Last summer, Zoe Tillman, who covers federal courts for The National Law Journal, began working to obtain and review required financial disclosure reports for 258 federal appellate judges for 2012, the latest year available.
The arduous process—one distinguished, perversely, by paper trails in this digital age— yielded 257 (paper) reports. Only one judge’s report was not provided; the judiciary declined to comment on why.
The financial reports reveal a trove of individual details: judges who obtained free legal services or who were reimbursed for speaking engagements in distant lands, for example, and one who reported money earned from record sales and performance fees for a folk group he’s played with since the 1950s. [Click here to read the full article & view the reports]