EXCLUSIVE — A “nonpartisan” watchdog group demanding transparency from the Supreme Court failed to track at least two speaking engagements by Democratic-appointed Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Washington Examiner found.
Fix the Court, which shares close ties to the Democratic Arabella Advisors dark money network in Washington, D.C., is one of several groups that often criticizes Republican-appointed Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito for allegedly failing to disclose certain gifts and financial matters. But the “transparency” watchdog, records show, does not appear to be properly cataloguing travel for all Supreme Court justices.
According to a Washington Examiner review of public records, Sotomayor traveled in July to Vienna, Austria. The justice, social media posts by the U.S. Embassy in Austria and other sources show, met with Austrian Minister of Justice Alma Zadić and a cohort of students.
In July, Sotomayor was also welcomed at the University of Zurich in Switzerland for a panel conversation with a professor and a journalist, according to an event announcement. Giving an introduction at the event was Suzan G. LeVine, a former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, who also did a brief stint in 2021 as President Joe Biden’s assistant secretary for employment and training.
However, until Thursday, Fix the Court did not include these two appearances by Sotomayor on its website under a section called “The Justices’ 2024 Events and Appearances with Links to Videos When Recorded.” That omission was corrected following the Washington Examiner reaching out for comment about the matter to Gabe Roth, who runs Fix the Court and used to work for the influential Democratic political consulting firm SKDK.
“Thanks for the tip — will be sure to add!” Roth wrote over email, adding that Supreme Court justices “are prolific travelers” and that Fix the Court is “always happy to update the page when we learn of a new trip or event.”
Republicans see the situation differently.
“Gabe Roth and his Fix The Court outfit are partisan hacks funded by left-wing billionaires who want to tear down the Supreme Court’s conservative majority,” attorney Mark Paoletta, a close friend of Thomas and his wife, Virginia Thomas, told the Washington Examiner.
Paoletta, who was general counsel for the powerful Office of Management and Budget under former President Donald Trump, said it’s not surprising Roth would overlook Sotomayor’s travel. The conservative lawyer wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in June that said Fix the Court inflated values for gifts to Thomas to push conflict of interest concerns.
Fix the Court, Paoletta also said, has ignored investigating a $1 million prize that, according to a Washington Free Beacon report, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg accepted from a left-leaning foundation.
Carrie Severino, a former law clerk to Thomas who runs the conservative Judicial Crisis Network watchdog group, agreed that the travel disclosure omission has the appearance of political bias.
“Of course, there is no judicial ethics issue with Justice Sotomayor traveling to Austria and Switzerland,” Severino said. “What is suspect, however, is how Fix the Court follows every move the Republican-appointed justices make but somehow misses this major international trip. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, though, given the organization’s history of connections to the Arabella Advisors network.”
The omission is “sloppy,” according to Severino, who added that Fix the Court “is as meticulous about statistical details as it is about filing its tax returns.”
Last year, the Washington Examiner found that Fix the Court failed to disclose lobbying the government, prompting Roth to apologize on a podcast and update the watchdog’s financial disclosures.
Fix the Court is a former project of the New Venture Fund, a key nonprofit group in the Arabella Advisors network that boosts left-wing causes. Launched in 2014, Fix the Court slams the Supreme Court for its “disdain for openness and transparency.”
At the same time, Fix the Court has been unhappy with the public having more information about its own finances. In May of last year, Roth unwittingly leaked Fix the Court’s donors to the Washington Examiner over email and went into panic mode over the mistake.
“As you can see if you’ve reviewed the forms, I’m not a good fundraiser,” Roth previously said.
“I’m not a good CPA. I’m a klutz. Schedule B is not something that is sent out, right? It’s not made public. Like, if you’re donating to a 501(c)(3), the IRS gets to see who donates to you, but the general public doesn’t,” Roth said.
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“I mean, basically, I’ve tried to donate money; I have failed,” Roth said. “I tried to raise money; I have failed. I have only two foundations that give me money, and if their names become public, they’re never going to talk to me again, and Fix the Court is over. My screwup this morning probably cost me my job.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Supreme Court for comment.
