Breyer, Alito Say ‘No Way’ to Know About Conflict They Missed

(Bloomberg) -- Two U.S. Supreme Court justices said there was "no way" to know about a conflict of interest they missed in January when the court turned away an appeal involving a United Technologies Corp. unit.

Justices Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito both owned stock in the company as of December 2017, according to their most recent financial disclosure reports, but neither disqualified himself as required under federal law.

The appeal sought to revive an employment discrimination suit against Rockwell Collins Inc., which United Technologies acquired in November. Rockwell Collins waived its right to respond, meaning that under the court’s rules it didn’t have to file a corporate disclosure statement showing United Technologies’s ownership.

"Because the respondents waived the right to respond to the petition, there was no requirement based on the rules to provide a corporate statement," Breyer and Alito said in a statement issued by the court Monday. "The court has a diligent conflict-checking process but without a response there would be no way to find out there was a conflict."

The statement responded to a report by Fix the Court, the watchdog group that discovered the missed recusal.

Breyer, Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts all own individual stocks. Typically, they either recuse or sell their stock when a case involving one of their companies reaches the court, but all three have overlooked conflicts.

Roberts in 2017 belatedly withdrew from a patent case involving a Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. unit. Breyer heard arguments in a 2015 case unaware that he had a financial interest through his wife’s ownership of Johnson Controls Inc. stock. In 2009 Alito took part in a case involving a Walt Disney Co. unit, even though his children held Disney stock.

In the latest case, Breyer’s and Alito’s involvement almost certainly didn’t affect the outcome. The court, which requires the votes of four justices to hear a case, turned away the former employee’s appeal without any comment or noted dissent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo, Wendy Benjaminson

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