Bloomberg via Yahho News: “Justice Samuel Alito is the only US Supreme Court member with a stake in more than two dozen individual companies, a distinction that threatens to sideline him from major business cases. Alito or his wife own tens of thousands of dollars of stock in companies including Raytheon Co., ConocoPhillips and a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. The holdings may force him to recuse as oil companies challenge lawsuits blaming them for climate change and J&J tries to settle talc lawsuits by placing a subsidiary into bankruptcy. Alito’s 2023 financial disclosure report was publicly released last week and shows he continues to own stock in over two dozen companies. Supreme Court disclosures extend to financial interests of spouses and dependent children. In Alito’s case, the filings don’t clarify whether the stocks are owned by the justice or his wife. Supreme Court justices are allowed to hold individual stocks, but ethics rules deem they should disqualify from cases involving the companies. In the past, more justices held shares in individual companies, but that has become rare. Meanwhile, scrutiny of the judicial ethics has increased after revelations that Justice Clarence Thomas, and to a lesser degree Alito, accepted undisclosed gifts and travel from billionaire benefactors. “It’s a question not of ethics, but of judgment,” said Steven Lubet, emeritus professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, who focuses on legal and judicial ethics. “Not everything that’s legal is a good idea.” The justice did not respond to requests for comment through the court’s public information office…”