Amid cross-partisan ethics complaints, deeper judicial breaches draw less scrutiny

In a sign of the intensifying politicization of the federal judiciary, complaints of misconduct are flying in both directions. Liberal advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers have targeted conservative Supreme Court justices and a Trump-appointed appeals judge, while the Justice Department under President Donald Trump lodged its own formal grievance against a prominent district court judge. 
Yet, amid the crossfire, two of the most straightforward potential breaches of judicial norms – the repeated leaking of internal Supreme Court deliberations and a university’s decision to hire the judge overseeing its own high-stakes lawsuit – have drawn comparatively little sustained scrutiny.
A Judiciary Under Partisan Pressure
In recent years, ethics complaints against federal judges have become increasingly routine. Critics across the ideological spectrum accuse their opponents of undermining public confidence in the courts through perceived bias, undisclosed financial relationships or improper political activity.
Investigations into Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have dominated headlines since 2023. Reporting by ProPublica and others revealed that Thomas accepted undisclosed luxury travel, private flights and real estate-related benefits from billionaire Harlan Crow, along with gifts tied to family members. Alito faced scrutiny over a 2008 fishing trip funded by hedge fund executive Paul Singer.
A December 2024 report by the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Democrats, concluded both justices had violated federal disclosure laws and created the appearance of partiality. 
Thomas and Alito have denied wrongdoing, maintaining they followed longstanding guidance regarding “personal hospitality” exemptions and rejecting calls for recusal or sanctions. The Supreme Court adopted a formal code of conduct in 2023, although critics note it lacks any independent enforcement mechanism.
More recently, attention turned to Third Circuit Judge Emil Bove, a former attorney for President Donald Trump. After Bove attended a Trump speech in Pennsylvania on December 9, 2025, watchdog group Fix the Court filed a misconduct complaint alleging violations of judicial canons that prohibit political activity and even the appearance of impropriety. The complaint remains pending.
Republican officials, in turn, have pursued their own complaints. 
In July 2025, the Justice Department under Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a misconduct claim against Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg. The complaint stemmed from remarks Boasberg made at a closed-door Judicial Conference session in which he warned colleagues that the administration might defy court orders, potentially triggering a constitutional crisis. 
The DOJ argued that Boasberg’s comments demonstrated bias, but a federal appeals judge dismissed the complaint in December, citing insufficient evidence.
Prominent legal figures have warned that this tit-for-tat dynamic risks further politicizing the judiciary, turning ethics enforcement into another arena for partisan contest.
Overlooked Ethical Issues
Even as these high-profile disputes dominate public debate, other issues – involving arguably more direct challenges to ethical norms – have drawn far less formal scrutiny.
One is the continuing pattern of leaks from within the Supreme Court. 
In April 2026, The New York Times published 16 pages of confidential 2016 memoranda related to the court’s handling of challenges to the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. 
The disclosure marked the third major leak in four years, following the 2022 draft opinion in landmark abortion case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and the release of internal materials related to Trump-era cases in 2024.
Such leaks strike at the core of the court’s deliberative process, which depends on strict confidentiality. The 2022 breach prompted an internal investigation that failed to identify a source. 
Some questions have been raised about whether these repeated disclosures would violate professional ethical standards had they originated from a law clerk, or the court’s code of conduct had a justice been responsible. But the issue has attracted relatively little sustained attention.
A second matter involves U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan and George Washington University. 
In May 2025, AliKhan was assigned to preside over Soffer v. George Washington University, a lawsuit alleging pervasive antisemitic harassment on campus. Months later, in February 2026, GW Law School hired the judge as an adjunct professor while the case remained pending before her.
The overlap has prompted questions about a potential conflict of interest, given federal rules requiring judges to avoid cases in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned. AliKhan did not immediately step aside but issued a 10-day stay in late March to consider whether recusal is warranted. Since the April 20 status conference, no final decision has been publicly announced.
While a formal ethics complaint may be premature, the situation has undoubtedly received far less attention than other perceived instances of judicial misconduct. 
Selective Attention
Such episodes point to a more complicated picture of judicial ethics enforcement.
The system is clearly active, with allegations of misconduct regularly filed and publicized. Yet many of the most prominent complaints – particularly those with an evident partisan dimension– are ultimately dismissed. The pattern raises questions about whether the process is sometimes used to amplify political grievances rather than to address clear ethical violations.
At the same time, some of the most consequential potential breaches receive little attention within the formal ethics framework, suggesting a mismatch between the conduct that generates complaints and the conduct that may pose the greatest risk to judicial integrity.

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