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Justices' investments lead court to take itself off apartheid case
They should try to minimize conflicts, ethics expert says
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Published: May 13, 2008
WASHINGTON
The Supreme Court withdrew from a big case yesterday. It could not take up the apartheid dispute involving some of the nation's largest companies because too many of the justices had investments or other ties with those companies.
It appeared to be the first time in at least 25 years that the justices' financial holdings prevented them from taking a case.
The result is that a lawsuit will go forward accusing corporations of violating international law by assisting South Africa's former apartheid government. The companies and the Bush administration had asked the court to intervene, saying that the lawsuit was damaging international relations, threatening South Africa's economic development and punishing the companies using a fuzzy legal concept.
Four of the nine justices sat out the court's consideration of the case. Federal law calls for at least six to hear any case.
Short of the required number, the court took the only path available to it and upheld an appeals-court ruling allowing the lawsuit to proceed.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy provided no explanation for their decision not to take part in the case.
Those justices have ties to Bank of America Corp., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Colgate-Palmolive Co., Credit Suisse, Exxon Mobil Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM and Nestle SA, among more than 30 companies that asked the high court to step in.
The justices' latest financial disclosures show:
□ Roberts owned Hewlett-Packard stock worth $15,000 to $50,000.
□ Breyer owned stock in Colgate-Palmolive, Bank of America, IBM and Nestle valued at $145,000 to $350,000.
□ Alito holds $100,000 to $250,000 in Exxon Mobil stock, which also caused him to sit out the still-pending dispute about the $2.5 billion punitive damages award for the Exxon Valdez disaster. Alito also owns as much as $15,000 in Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Kennedy does not hold stock in any affected company, but his son, Gregory, is a managing director at Credit Suisse. Kennedy sat out a case last term involving the investment bank.
New York University law professor Stephen Gillers, an expert on judicial ethics, said he expects this issue to arise from time to time. "Whether it's family relationships or wealth, this is going to happen," he said. "It hasn't reached the point where we need to do something."
Some apparent conflicts, such as Kennedy's, are beyond the justices' direct command.
But they maintain control over their investment portfolios, and should take steps to minimize conflicts, said Arthur Hellman, an ethics expert at the University of Pittsburgh law school.
Alito, Breyer and Roberts could have been involved in the case if they had sold the affected investments. Roberts has done just that on two occasions to get back into a case from which he initially stepped aside.
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The Downtown Summer Music Series will begin on Thursday. Ed Bumgardner talks to some of the organizers of the Downtown Jazz lineup, in which a form of music known as "smooth jazz" will play a more prominent role this year.
Thursday's relish stories will appear in the Entertainment section.
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