Supreme Court Justices, Federal Judges May Need to Disclose Event Contributions

On Tuesday, April 28, 2026, Reuters reported that U.S. Supreme Court justices and federal judges on lower courts may be required to disclose contributions received from law firms, bar associations, and former clients. These contributions would be for funding receptions or celebrations held in their honor, under newly adopted ethics guidance.

The new regulations were detailed in a report from the U.S. Judicial Conference’s closed-door meeting on March 10, which was released last month. The report outlined several revisions made by the Committee on Financial Disclosure regarding the rules governing how judges publicly report gifts and investments.

The changes, which took effect last month, include new guidance on how judges should handle contributions for receptions related to events such as investitures, retirements, or portrait unveiling ceremonies. Investitures are formal swearing-in ceremonies for new judges and often include lawyers who have previously worked with the judges, as well as family members.

Filing instructions now advise judges to disclose contributions from outside organizations or individuals associated with special events if the judges would have otherwise paid for the event’s costs, such as catering, venue, or entertainment. The contribution may still need to be disclosed even if the judge would not have otherwise paid those costs, according to the guidance, which lists factors related to the judges’ involvement in the event.

The instructions also advise that accepting an investiture-related gift may require the judge’s recusal in matters involving the donor, consistent with earlier versions of the guidance. Some judges had already disclosed ceremony-related contributions before the new policy was implemented.

Fix the Court, a judicial reform advocacy group, stated in a press release that it had identified 12 disclosed gifts from 2023 to 2024 and “presume there may have been more during that period that went unreported.”

The pace of investiture ceremonies has increased in recent years as Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden appointed numerous new judges in an attempt to influence the judiciary’s ideological balance.