After receiving a $1 million prize from a left-wing foundation, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg vowed to donate the money to numerous different charities; to this day, it is unknown where the money went.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Ginsburg was awarded the prize money by the Berggruen Institute, founded by left-wing billionaire Nicolas Berggruen, at its annual Philosophy & Culture Award dinner in December 2019. Ethics experts at the time pointed out that the amount was far greater than the $2,000 maximum that Judicial Conference regulations placed on honoraria, thus raising the likelihood of conflicts of interest for Ginsburg.
Ginsburg subsequently promised to donate the money to over 60 charities of her choice, some of which included the Metropolitan Opera, the American Bar Foundation, and the American Cancer Society. But she also ordered the Berggruen Institute to hide the full list of the intended donation recipients, with the institute even utilizing creative accounting with its Form 990 tax returns in order to keep their identities secret.
“That list, per her wishes, is not for publication,” said Rachel Bauch, a spokeswoman for the Berggruen Institute.
As the identities of most of the recipients remains a secret, it is possible that some of them could have been involved in cases before the Supreme Court during the roughly nine-month period between Ginsburg receiving the prize and her death in September of 2020. There is no indication that Ginsburg recused herself from any cases during that time, raising the likelihood that she ruled on a case where she had a personal interest due to her donations.
The revelation comes as left-wing activists have been trying to accuse the court’s two most senior conservatives, Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, of potential ethics violations and clashing interests. But the push for greater transparency on the court has only highlighted greater ethical violations from the court’s left-wing justices, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor receiving millions from her book publisher and then subsequently refusing to recuse herself from cases involving the same publisher.