The Supreme Court said that it will begin using new software to help justices identify potential conflicts of interest when deciding whether to recuse themselves from cases.
The system will run automated recusal checks that compare information about parties and attorneys in each case against lists maintained by individual justices’ chambers, according to a Feb. 17 press release from the Supreme Court.
To prepare for the deployment, the judiciary revised its Rules of the Court to support the operation of the new software. The updated rules will take effect on March 16.
“The system was designed and created by the Court’s Office of Information Technology in cooperation with the Court’s Legal Office and Clerk’s Office,” the press release said. “The software will serve in addition to existing conflict-checking procedures in chambers.”
The move follows heightened scrutiny of ethics practices at the high court. In late 2023, the Supreme Court released a code of conduct that pointed to recusal software already used by district courts and courts of appeals as potentially beneficial for the justices.
At the time, the court said it would need to determine whether additional resources were necessary “to perform initial and ongoing review of recusal and other ethics issues.”
A push for more ethical conduct and guardrails stemmed from allegations that justices were bypassing certain ethics rules and not recusing themselves from cases with ties to their own book deals.
Supreme Court justices recuse themselves from cases to avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of bias when personal, financial, or prior professional ties could call their impartiality into question.
The court said it plans to issue additional guidance in the coming weeks to further explain the changes to its rules.