A new bill in Congress would slam the door on the lavish, largely unreported gifts that Supreme Court justices have accepted for decades. On July 14, 2026, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, joined Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) to reintroduce the High Court Gift Ban Act — legislation that would cap the value of gifts a justice can accept at just $50 for any single item and $100 in total per year.
To be clear about what this is: a proposal, not a done deal. The bill has been introduced and referred to committee, but it has not passed either chamber and faces long odds in the current Congress. Still, it puts a sharp number on a problem that watchdogs have documented for years.
The Loophole That Let Justices Take Millions
Here is the part that surprises most people: the Supreme Court has operated as the one corner of the federal government with no binding, enforceable cap on the gifts its members can accept. Members of Congress and executive branch officials already live under strict gift limits. The nine justices have not.
Investigative reporting over the past few years put hard figures on the practice. Justices have accepted at least 445 gifts worth nearly $5 million over roughly two decades. Justice Clarence Thomas alone accepted more than $4.2 million in luxury travel and benefits from wealthy benefactors — including billionaire Harlan Crow — some of whom had interests before the Court. Private jet flights, superyacht vacations, exclusive resort stays, and even a forgiven loan on a luxury motor coach were frequently treated not as red flags but as perks of the job.
What the High Court Gift Ban Act Would Do
The bill is straightforward. If passed, it would bar a justice from accepting any gift worth more than $50, and cap the total value of gifts from a single source at $100 per year. Crucially, it would close the so-called “personal hospitality” exemption — the gap in current rules that has allowed justices to accept free stays, flights, and vacations without ever disclosing them. In short, it would hold the highest court in the country to the same ethics standards that already apply to every other federal judge, every member of Congress, and the entire executive branch.
The measure has real backing. It launched with 41 House Democratic original cosponsors and a Senate companion led by Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), joined by Sen. Lujan and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Roughly 40 advocacy organizations — among them Fix the Court, Public Citizen, MoveOn, AFSCME, Alliance for Justice, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington — have endorsed it.
What Sponsors Are Saying
Raskin framed the issue bluntly. “In every other part of the federal government, taking lavish gifts…is called corruption — but at the Supreme Court, it’s bizarrely been treated as a job perk,” he said. Welch struck a similar note: “Those serving on the Supreme Court should be held to the same ethical standards as every other federal judge.” Schiff said the goal was to end “egregious conflicts of interest” by establishing basic ethical guardrails.
A Proposal, Not Yet a Law
Supporters know the road ahead is steep. This is a reintroduction — a version of the bill was first offered in the 118th Congress — and it is unlikely to become law in the current session. The justices themselves adopted a non-binding code of conduct in recent years, but critics note it has no enforcement mechanism and no dollar limits. That is precisely the gap this legislation is written to fill.
What This Means for Americans
The Supreme Court hands down decisions that touch nearly every part of daily life — from healthcare and voting to workers’ rights and the price of prescription drugs. When the people making those rulings can quietly accept millions in gifts from wealthy interests, public trust in the Court’s independence takes the hit. Whether or not this particular bill becomes law, it forces a simple question into the open: should the most powerful judges in America live by the same ethics rules as everyone else in government?
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