And a Bush nominee is in conflict with ethics:

Jan. 31, 2006 | A federal judge nominated by President Bush to one of the nation’s highest courts disqualified himself from two cases against a corporation in which he has held personal investments, after a report revealed that his career on the bench has been riddled with conflicts of interest.

On Jan. 23, following the Salon story “Bush Nominee Broke Law,” Judge James H. Payne recused himself from two product-liability suits against drug titan Pfizer, which had been assigned to him since November, according to court documents. Payne has reported stock holdings of up to $15,000 in Pfizer since 1999. Federal law and the official Code of Conduct for U.S. judges explicitly prohibit judges from sitting on cases involving companies in which they or members of their immediate family own stock.

Payne was nominated by Bush last fall to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Denver, and is awaiting a confirmation hearing. The chief judge of the 10th Circuit Court and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee staff told Salon they plan to look further into Payne’s reported violations of federal law, while senators from the judge’s home state have reaffirmed their support of the nominee.

Payne, who is currently chief judge of the federal district court in Muskogee, Okla. (he was elevated by Bush from magistrate judge in 2001), recused himself without the prompting of lawyers, according to lawyer Laurie Koller, who helped bring the cases against Pfizer. [...]

Bush administration officials did not return repeated calls for comment on the Salon story, which revealed that since 1999 Payne has issued more than 100 orders in at least 18 cases that involved corporations in which he reported stock holdings.