When the nine justices of the US Supreme Court released their annual financial disclosures on Friday (June 7), Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson she mentioned a nicer-than-usual line item: that Beyoncé had personally gifted her with four concert tickets.
In an annual report required by federal ethics laws, Justice Jackson listed her various investments, as well as a nearly $1 million advance she received from Penguin Random House for her Beautiful memoir is set to hit shelves this fall.
But the most notable item was under gifts, where the justice listed “Concert tickets (4),” valued at $3,711. The source of these tickets? “Beyonce Knowles-Carter”.
The deposition, taken from Advertising sign, did not include more information, such as what specific shows Justice Jackson had watched or how KBJ and Queen Bey had connected. A representative for Beyoncé did not immediately return a request for comment.
This year's SCOTUS revelations have drawn far more attention than usual, following revelations last year that Justice Clarence Thomas had received undisclosed expensive gifts, including trips on a private plane, from a major Republican donor Harlan Crowe. In his own report Friday, Judge Thomas formally amended the disputed trips in his earlier filings, but did not list new travel allowances for 2023.
Members of the federal judiciary are not prohibited from owning investments, earning outside income or even accepting gifts such as expensive concert tickets. But they must disclose such income in order to avoid any possible conflicts of interest concerning cases they are charged with deciding.
When faced with a financial conflict of interest — or even the appearance of such biases — lower federal judges are required to recuse themselves from cases. In a new code of conduct issued last year after the Thomas-Crow debacle, the high court agreed to follow essentially the same rules. But those new regulations made dismissals more difficult on the Supreme Court, where a judge cannot simply be replaced by another judge.
In Justice Jackson's case, such questions would only arise if Beyoncé had cases before the high court — an outcome that's not impossible given the fast-paced copyright dispute in the music industry, but seems unlikely anytime soon.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/business/legal/beyonce-concert-tickets-supreme-court-ketanji-brown-jackson-1235703651/