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WASHINGTON — A month after Neil M. Gorsuch was appointed to the Supreme Court in April 2017, Gorsuch and his two partners finally sold the vacation property they had been trying to sell for nearly two years. However, when he reported the sale the following year, he left the field asking for the identity of the buyer blank.
Brian L. Duffy, chief executive of Greenberg Traurig, a sprawling law firm that frequently trades in court, and his wife, Cali, according to Colorado county real estate records. Duffy bought the property.
The identity of the purchaser and Judge Gorsuch’s decision not to disclose it were previously reported by Politico on Tuesday. Experts said the omission did not violate the law, but increased scrutiny of financial entanglements in the Supreme Court and new calls for tougher rules by Democratic lawmakers underscored the need for ethics reform. He added that he emphasized
ProPublica reported earlier this month that Judge Clarence Thomas repeatedly received free travel for luxury vacations and other purposes from Republican mega-donor Harlan Crowe, and sold the property to Mr. Crowe in Georgia. reportedly did not disclose the
Judge Gorsuch did not break the law by not revealing the identity of the purchaser, said Steven Gillers, a New York University professor and legal ethics expert. Under his 1978 law governing financial disclosures, federal judges are not required to disclose who purchased the property.
Gabe Ross, executive director of Fix the Court, a bipartisan group that seeks greater transparency and accountability by judges, agreed the omission did not violate the law. He argued that Congress should pass legislation expanding what judges must disclose, including losses, the nature of the partnership holding the property, and who the buyer is.
Illinois Democratic Senator Richard J. Durbin, who heads the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement that the committee plans to review potential ethics reform bills for the Supreme Court.
“There is growing evidence that Supreme Court justices have fallen short of the ethical standards expected of other federal judges and public officials.” , and if the courts fail to take appropriate action, Congress must.”
The Supreme Court press did not respond to Justice Gorsuch’s request for comment.
Greenberg Traurig employs approximately 2,650 attorneys in 45 locations around the world and will generate more than $2 billion in revenue in 2021, according to its website.
A search of Supreme Court records on the legal research site Nexis returned more than 40 cases involving the company’s attorneys from the time Justice Gorsuch was appointed to the end of 2022, the latest date in the database. They included a case taken by the court, a petition that refused to appeal, and a friend of the court opinion filed where the company did not represent the litigants.
Duffy, who lives in Colorado, did not respond to an email from the New York Times. However, he told Politico that he bought the property because he was a fly fisherman and had never argued or socially met before Judge Gorsuch. He said he was unaware that the jurist had an interest in the property when he made his initial offer.
It is not clear when the offer was made. The New York Times explained the judge’s ownership in a March 2017 article detailing his relationship with billionaire Philip F. Anschutz.
A major conservative donor, Anschutz lobbied Colorado’s only Republican senator and the George W. Bush administration to nominate Gorsuch to a seat on the Court of Appeals in 2006. Mr. Duffy eventually purchased his 40 acres of land from a jurist and mogul.
In 2005, Judge Gorsuch, along with two of Anschutz’s chief lieutenants, formed a limited liability company to acquire the land.
Calling themselves the Walden Group, they bought the property for $900,000 and built a 2,923-square-foot log home for their fishing vacation, as their property records show. He included 2,000 feet on either side of the Colorado River. The venture was structured as a timeshare giving each partner the right to use a certain number of days.
In 2017, Judge Gorsuch’s spokeswoman told The Times that she had donated $360,000 to the Walden Group for a 20% stake. Mr. Anschutz’s two lieutenants each contributed twice as much as him and owned 40%.
Judge Gorsuch had the fewest donations, but county records show that all correspondence regarding the property was addressed to him in federal court in Denver.
In 2015, Judge Gorsuch and his partner began trying to sell the property. They originally listed for $2,495,000 that July, a property listing shows, which Mr. Duffy and his wife bought for his $1.825 million in May 2017, according to county records. Until now, they have reduced the price several times.
Judge Gorsuch reported the deal on line 56 in the middle of the 113 investments in the following year’s financial disclosure form.
He was brief, writing “Walden Group LLC” in a column asking for a description of the property, without explaining what it was or mentioning the property. I left the field empty asking you to rate it as a dollar and list the “buyer/seller identity (for private transactions)”.
Judge Gorsuch did not report any proceeds from the sale and appears to have lost money on it.
Roth said the episode showed that judges should be asked to be more candid in their annual reports.
“There are instances where judges have omitted these types of transactions, but even if they were included, the public has a right to know more about it,” he said. “It’s hard to do basic surveillance without knowing who you’re dealing with.”
Kitty Bennett Contributed to research.
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