Justice Samuel Alito Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court recused himself from hearing an energy case argued on Oct. 14 because he owned stock in Johnson Controls Inc. Yet Justice Stephen Breyer participated in the argument even though his wife owned stock in the same company. A Johnson Controls subsidiary, EnergyConnect, was a party in the consolidated cases captioned as Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Association and EnerNOC v. Electric Power Supply Association.
After the oral argument, when a Bloomberg News reporter informed Breyer of the stock ownership listed in his most recent financial disclosure report, Breyer’s wife sold the 750 shares of stock. Breyer stayed in the case. (He declined to comment about the recusal matter.)
