(Adds number of justices with assets in excess of $1 million in paragraph 10)
By Mark H. Anderson and Christina M. Wright
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Several U.S. Supreme Court justices sold a handful of individual stock holdings in 2007, but some continue to hold numerous investments requiring recusals if appeals involving certain companies come before the court.
Annual financial disclosures released Friday confirm that Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. sold stakes in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) (C) and Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ-NMS:CSCO) (CSCO) so he could vote in two major Wall Street securities cases. Roberts, who pushed for a 2006 tax law change that eases the tax burden judges face when they unwind stock positions, also sold Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) (MRK) and Becton Dickinson & Co. (NYSE:BDX) ( BDX) holdings in 2007.
Roberts sold a stake in Cisco Systems (NASDAQ-NMS:CSCO) worth between $50,000 and $100,000 in March 2007. The move allowed him to be the fifth vote in the 5-3 Stoneridge ruling that restricted the ability of shareholders to sue lawyers, accountants and other third parties that do business with corporations.
The disclosures also show Roberts sold between $50,000 and $100,000 of Citigroup (NYSE:C) stock a week before the court heard arguments in Credit Suisse Securities v. Billing, a case where the court ruled 7-1 that Wall Street firms are immune from certain class-action lawsuits brought under federal antitrust laws.
Justice Samuel Alito also pared some of his stock holdings by selling a stake in Intel Corp. (NASDAQ-NMS:INTC) (INTC) and selling part of his holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY) (BMY), McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD) (MCD) and Exxon Corp. (NYSE:XOM) (XOM).
Exxon (NYSE:XOM) appeals cases to the high court regularly and Alito has in the past recused himself from those matters. Although he sold between $100,000 and $250, 000 of his Exxon (NYSE:XOM) stake, he continues to hold a similar amount.
Justice Stephen Breyer, who holds a large portfolio of stock and fund investments, said he sold Alltel Corp. (NYSE:AT) (AT) stock in November 2007 worth between $50,000 and $100,000. Breyer also sold stakes in PartnerRe Ltd. (NYSE:PRE) (PRE) and Scottish Power PLC (SPW.PZ).
Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Breyer and Alito are the most likely justices to recuse from a case due to stock conflicts. As of the end of 2007, Chief Justice Roberts held 16 individual stocks while Justice Breyer more than 40and Justice Alito five.
The other members of the Supreme Court hold few if any stock investments and instead favor diversified investments, bank accounts and property for their investments. Justice Antonin Scalia in 2007 sold his one individual stock holding - (CPKA) - for less than $15,000.
Seven of the nine justices reported investment assets in excess of $1 million. The two justices below that threshold are Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.
Last month the Supreme Court could not act on an apartheid lawsuit filed against more than 30 companies because three justices had financial conflicts and one justice's son worked for an involved company. The lack of a quorum in a case is rare, but justices routinely recuse themselves from several cases every term. The court also occasionally deadlocks when only eight justices are on a case, as it did in March 2008 in a case involving a unit of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) (PFE). Chief Justice Roberts was recused from the Pfizer matter, known as Warner- Lambert v. Kent.
The annual financial disclosures, released in early June of each year, require reporting of assets in bracketed ranges.
-By Mark H. Anderson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9254; mark.anderson@ dowjones.com
-By Christina M. Wright, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6687; christina.wright@ dowjones.com.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 06-06-08 1635 Copyright (c) 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
