Supreme Court implements new rules to help justices spot conflicts of interest

The Supreme Court announced new rules Tuesday designed to help identify all of the parties involved in a case, allowing the justices to figure out if they have conflicts of interest that demand their recusal.

The rules require parties to make sure that some part of a case's briefing mentions all of the parties involved, and in some cases, their corporate parent firms. The update also requires parties to list the stock ticker symbols of any publicly held companies.

The court said the update will improve the electronic conflict-checking system to spot cases where the justices need to decide whether they can take part.

"Most of the changes are designed to support operation of newly developed software that will assist in identifying potential conflicts for the Justices, and the revisions impose a number of new requirements upon filers to support the software," a statement from the court said.