REHNQUIST OPPOSES FULL DISCLOSURE OF JUDGES' RECORDS

By: Staff reports APBnews.com Continues Fight Over Financial Reports



Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist asked Congress to reconsider ethics laws so that judges
can censor their financial disclosure reports before posting them on the Internet,
APBnews.com reports.


Rehnquist spoke to a group of lawyers and judges at the American Law Institute on Monday,
adding the last round in what has been a nine-month battle between APBnews.com and federal
judges over online publication of the judges' financial reports.


Rehnquist says that federal judges might be endangered by placing their financial disclosure
reports on the Internet. But the Judicial Conference, a policy-making body for the federal
bench headed by Rehnquist, ordered in March that the reports be released.


Rehnquist finds that disclosure requirements that reveal where a judge's spouse works, the
spouse's income, where a family member is attending school, if a school has made a loan to
the student, or where the judge resides might endanger judges, particularly trial judges
directly involved in sentencing of criminal defendants.


The Ethics in Government Act currently requires that this information be revealed, but the
Internet has changed accessibility to these documents.


Related stories:



SENATORS QUESTION DELAY IN RELEASE OF JUDGES' RECORDS (05/12/00)



FEDERAL JUDGES GIVE IN TO APBnews.com (03/15/00)



APBNEWS.com CONTINUES FIGHT FOR JUDGES' RECORDS (02/18/00)



JUDGE WITHHOLDS FINANCIAL INFO FROM WEB SITE (12/09/99)