Inside the personal finances of Joe Biden's possible Supreme Court nominees

• President Joe Biden has pledged to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court.

• Insider obtained the most recent financial records for four potential Supreme Court nominees.

• Some of these potential nominees have held individual stocks or investment properties.

Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement announcement has prompted a speculative frenzy over who President Joe Biden will nominate to the Supreme Court. Biden has previously vowed to appoint a Black woman as his Supreme Court justice, and his short list includes at least a dozen people.

Biden is expected to make a final decision by the end of February to replace Breyer and has already begun to reach out to potential candidates, according to CNN.

Insider obtained the most recently available financial disclosure forms for four potential candidates: US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger, US District Judge J. Michelle Childs of South Carolina, and US District Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner of Georgia.

The financial disclosures, obtained through the Free Law Project, provide a revealing, if incomplete, picture of their personal finances. The documents in part list salary information, outside income, past positions, travel reimbursements and perks, and details about their various financial investments, including stocks and rental properties.

Some of these investments could conceivably pose conflicts of interest at a time when the public's opinion of the Supreme Court is plummeting, according to recent polls.

The number of Americans who have favorable views of the Supreme Court declined to 54% in January 2022 from 70% in August 2020, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center. A recent Gallup poll painted an even bleaker picture for the high court.

"The public is paying attention to the Supreme Court in a way that I don't think it has in the past because it has both the perception and the reality of being increasingly partisan," said Renee Knake Jefferson, a University of Houston law professor.

Jefferson told Insider that it's unclear what the recusal process would look like for any Supreme Court nominee who may have certain investments that could pose an ethical conflict. But it will be something that Biden will carefully have to monitor, Jefferson said.

Ethical conflicts of federal judges has been at the center of controversy since the Wall Street Journal published a report that found that more than 130 federal judges broke the law by overseeing cases in which they or their family members had a financial interest.

This Supreme Court nomination process also comes on the heels of Insider's "Conflicted Congress" project that found that dozens of lawmakers — including those in the US Senate who will vote on a Supreme Court nomination — had potential financial conflicts or violated the law by failing to properly disclose their own stock transactions. Congress is actively debating whether to strengthen these rules — including whether to require Supreme Court justices or all federal judges to disclose more information about their personal finances.

Below are details about four leading Supreme Court nominee candidates' personal finances. This article will be updated as financial disclosures become available for other potential Supreme Court nominees.

US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson

Jackson, 51, is seen as a top contender to be the next Supreme Court nominee. Jackson joined the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuits in 2021. She served as a judge on the US District Court for the District of Columbia from 2013 to 2021.

Jackson, a former Breyer clerk, attended Harvard University for her undergraduate studies and also graduated from Harvard Law School.

In 2019, Jackson also sat on the Board of Overseers at Harvard University, which helps the president and senior officers fulfill their responsibilities in managing and leading the university. She also was a board member of Georgetown Day School, according to a 2019 financial disclosure.

She reported up to $130,000 in Charles Schwab investment accounts, that included one that tracks the S&P 500" and another described as "small cap index fund." She also held Vanguard index funds that totaled up to $30,000.

Jackson did not report holding any individual stocks in her financial disclosure forms covering 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2012.

In 2011 and 2012, Jackson received $3,000 each year for teaching at the George Washington University law school.

Jackson's office declined Insider's request to comment on her financial disclosures and whether she currently owns individual stocks. Insider has asked federal courts to provide financial disclosure for Jackson and other potential Supreme Court nominees covering 2020 but has not yet received them.

California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger

Kruger, 45, is a native to southern California. She attended Harvard University and Yale Law School. In 2015, Kruger joined the California State Supreme Court. Before that, she worked in the Justice Department under the George W. Bush and Obama administration.

Kruger argued nearly a dozen cases before the Supreme Court when she worked at the Department of Justice.

In 2020, she reported receiving $1,437 from Harvard Law School and $449 from the University of Southern California for making a speech or participating in a panel, according to a "statement of economic interests" filed with the California Fair Political Practices Commission that covered her financial activity during 2020.

Kruger did not report owning any individual stocks in her most recent financial disclosure form.

US District Judge J. Michelle Childs of South Carolina.

Childs, 55, is reportedly considered a potential Supreme Court Nominee. In 2009, former President Barack Obama appointed Childs to serve on the South Carolina federal bench. In 2000, she served as a gubernatorial appointee on South Carolina's Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

She attended the University of South Carolina Law School.

Childs has won the support of Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Democrat of South Carolina, who has been very vocal about Biden nominating a Black woman to the Supreme Court.

In 2018, Childs owned three rental properties that were each worth up to $250,000. Two properties were located in Columbia, South Carolina, and one was located in Fayetteville, Georgia, according to her 2018 federal financial disclosure form.

That same year, she reported investing in diversified funds such as the American Funds Fundamental Investors® Class F-2 that was valued up to $50,000 and Blackstone Alternative Multi-Strategy Fund that was also valued up to $50,000.

She also reported under her investment that she owned a stake in "I Properties" that was reported to be worth up to $5 million, according to her 2018 financial disclosure statement.

In 2016 and 2017, Childs also said she was investing in an entity called "Partnership Building," which was worth up to $5 million.

Childs did not report this "Partnership Buildings" investment in her 2018 financial disclosure. The disclosure did not indicate how much money she has invested into this entity or what this entity was.

Childs did not respond to Insider's request to comment on her investments.

US District Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner of Georgia

Gardner, 47, a federal district court judge in Georgia, is also among the many potential Supreme Court nominees. In 2014, she was appointed to the federal bench by Obama.

Before her appointment, Gardner worked as a federal prosecutor in the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia. Gardner graduated from Brown University before obtaining her law degree from Yale Law School.

Gardner traded or held stocks in Adobe, Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group, Amazon, Apple, Boeing, and Home Depot that are each worth up to $15,000 or less, according to her 2019 financial disclosure. That same year, she sold her stocks in pharmaceutical giant Pfizer that were worth up to $15,000.

The previous year, Gardner first bought her stocks in Apple, Adobe, according to her 2018 financial disclosure. In 2018, she sold her stocks in Johnson & Johnson worth up to $15,000.

It is unclear when Gardner, who is the sister of Democratic Party luminary and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, still holds these stocks. She did not respond to Insider requests for comment.

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