House and Senate Democrats reintroduce a bill to cap Supreme Court justices' gifts at $50

Rep. Jamie Raskin, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ben Ray Luján introduced the High Court Gift Ban Act on July 14, a bill that would bar Supreme Court justices from accepting any gift worth more than $50 at a time or more than $100 from a single source over a year. The measure would also limit gifts of personal hospitality, the category that now covers most privately funded travel to the justices, such as flights on private jets and stays at private resorts.

What the bill would do

The bill sets two dollar limits on what a justice may accept: no single gift valued above $50, and no more than $100 in gifts from one source in a calendar year. It applies the same caps to personal hospitality, which under current law is largely exempt from value limits. According to the sponsors, the effect is to hold the justices to the gift rules that already bind members of Congress, executive branch officials and other federal judges. The bill text was posted by the House Judiciary Committee's Democratic staff.

What the current rules are

The justices file annual financial disclosure reports and, since a 2023 revision to the Judicial Conference's rules, must report most privately funded travel and hospitality. Federal law does not cap the value of gifts a justice may accept. By contrast, members of Congress and executive branch employees operate under a $50-per-gift and $100-per-year limit. In November 2023 the Court adopted its first code of conduct, which sets ethics standards but includes no enforcement mechanism.

Why the sponsors say they acted

The bill was introduced the same day Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Elena Kagan testified before congressional appropriators on the Court's fiscal 2027 budget request of about $225.1 million, according to Just the News. In announcing the bill, the sponsors cited an analysis by the advocacy group Fix the Court that counted at least 445 gifts to justices worth nearly $5 million over the past two decades. They also pointed to reporting by ProPublica that documented luxury travel provided to Justice Clarence Thomas by Republican donor Harlan Crow, which Thomas had not disclosed.

"In every other part of the federal government, taking lavish gifts from interested parties is called corruption," Raskin said in a statement.

"The Supreme Court is facing a major corruption crisis," Ocasio-Cortez said.

"Over the past several years, we've seen far too many reports detailing how lavish gifts and luxury travel have undermined public confidence in the Supreme Court," Luján said.

Where it stands

Raskin and Ocasio-Cortez introduced a version of the bill in the 118th Congress in 2024. It did not advance. The current version adds a Senate sponsor in Luján and lists 41 House cosponsors, all Democrats. No Republican has signed on. To become law the measure would have to pass both chambers and be signed by the president.

The Court has not commented on the bill. Its members have pointed to the 2023 code of conduct and existing disclosure requirements as the framework governing their conduct. The bill is endorsed by roughly 40 advocacy organizations, most of them liberal-leaning, including Public Citizen, the American Federation of Teachers and Fix the Court.