Sponsors (2)
The bill increases judicial impartiality and public transparency by requiring blind trusts and attestations, at the cost of added compliance complexity, potential financial hardship or reduced flexibility for judges' families, and some privacy trade-offs.
Federal judges and their families must place covered financial interests into qualified blind trusts within 90 days, reducing conflicts of interest and improving judicial impartiality.
Taxpayers and the public gain transparency because judges must publicly post attestations about blind-trust use, making compliance and recusals easier to verify.
Federal judges and their families retain protection of financial privacy from court probing because the bill narrows 'reasonable effort,' preventing courts from demanding blind-trust internal details while preserving recusal requirements.
Federal judges and their spouses/dependent children will face increased compliance complexity and costs — including transaction costs for transferring assets and possible forced divestment of complex positions (commodities, futures, synthetic instruments).
Federal judges and their families may have reduced financial flexibility because trusts cannot be controlled or dissolved until 180 days after leaving office, potentially locking in assets at disadvantageous times.
Federal judges and their families may experience privacy harms because public posting of attestations can reveal whether they hold certain interests, exposing sensitive information even if detailed asset lists are not published.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires covered judges and their spouses/dependents to place specified financial interests into qualified blind trusts, clarifies recusal rules, and mandates public attestations.
Official title: Amend title 28, United States Code, to require justices, judges, magistrate judges, or bankruptcy judges and their spouses and dependent children to place certain assets into qualified blind trusts, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 20, 2026 by Adam Schiff · Last progress July 20, 2026
Requires federal judges, and their spouses/dependent children, to place specified financial assets into qualified blind trusts and clarifies recusal disclosure rules. It limits what judges must seek to learn about blind trust holdings, sets timelines for creating trusts and attestations, restricts trust control while in office, and requires public posting of attestations. Clarifies that judges’ “reasonable effort” to avoid conflicts does not include trying to identify securities inside a qualified blind trust beyond the initial asset list, and adds a severability clause.