I have to say, these Gorsuch revelations don't really move the needle for me much. The Thomas stuff is much more appalling.
Why is that?
The property had been on the market for a long time, and the price kept getting reduced (I don't want to re-read the article, but it dropped some 700K before it sold). Gorsuch was a fractional owner (20%) of the investment vehicle (LLC) that owned the property. The guy who bought it (Duffy) seems to have actually wanted the property as a Colorado resident and fisherman and apparently didn't know Gorsuch had an interest in it until after he was interested in buying it. There's no indication the sale was above FMV. He cleared it through his ethics dept/general counsel before closing. He claims to have never met nor spoken with Gorsuch. I'm also less concerned about Gorsuch's ethics than Thomas's or Alito's. He seems fairly above-board to me. Just my opinions, so take it FWIW. It does seem pretty obvious now that no one is really checking these disclosure forms for compliance. Boxes left unchecked, blanks left unfilled, etc. We should do something about that.
Also, Duffy was/is based in Denver, which is also where Gorsuch sat at the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals before being elevated. If Duffy really wanted to cozy up to Gorsuch, he had ample opportunity to do so but didn't. Has still (allegedly) never had any personal interactions with him. I have a hard time believing Gorsuch would give preferential treatment to an entire law firm because of this event.
Full disclosure: one of my former professors is personal friends with Gorsuch and attended his White House ceremony. Said professor also happens to be a biglaw partner. Judges are lawyers and interact almost exclusively with lawyers. It would be difficult or impossible to avoid betraying loyalties given the breadth of their personal networks, so I assume most (but not all!) just stick to the papers in front of them.
I don't mind reporting all of these instances, however, because it might pressure Roberts to actually put emphasis on proper disclosures. Wishful thinking, probably ...
