Who's Junketing the Judges

     Community Rights Counsel's review of judges' financial disclosure forms confirms that right-leaning, anti-regulatory organizations dominate private judicial education. Indeed, the three organizations hosting the most trips—the Law and Economics Center (LEC), the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE) and Liberty Fund (collectively “the Big Three”), with 641, 410 and 125 trips reported by judges, respectively—share a remarkably similar conservative/libertarian ideology and structure their seminars to advance this ideology.

     Reported attendance at Big Three seminars has grown steadily over the past 12 years, from an average 68 trips in 1993-1995 to an average of 110 trips in 2002-2004, a 62% increase. With about 800 active judges at any given time, this means that about 14% of the federal judiciary takes a Big Three trip each year. For more on the groups hosting junkets, read Chapter 2 of the full report.