Fix the Court, a nonprofit organization registered under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS, reported on tax forms covering fiscal 2023 paying Gabe Roth, its director, a salary of $168,100. The group, which has helped lead a campaign criticizing Clarence Thomas and other Supreme Court justices for allegedly failing to disclose gifts and other items related to their finances, received just $175,400 in donations last year — spending to the tune of $221,000 and finishing with a deficit of almost $46,000.

“Fix the Court paid a grossly excessive salary to Gabe Roth, thereby jeopardizing its tax-exempt status with the IRS,” said Paul Kamenar, counsel to a conservative watchdog group called the National Legal and Policy Center that is mulling filing an IRS complaint. Last year, the NLPC demanded an investigation over Fix the Court paying Roth 82% of its revenue, claiming the payment constituted an Excess Benefit Transaction.

“Moreover,” Kamenar added, “Roth may be liable to pay an excessive benefit tax of 25%, as well as a 10% tax on the board of directors who approved his salary.”

JAMES HO, THE 5TH CIRCUIT ORIGINALIST TIPPED AS THE HEIR TO CLARENCE THOMAS

News of Roth’s salary is poised to open Fix the Court up to further scrutiny on the heels of a series of hiccups first reported by the Washington Examiner over the last two years. Roth unwittingly leaked Fix the Court’s donors in 2023, declaring in an interview after the fact, “My screwup this morning probably cost me my job.” Then, tax experts said Fix the Court likely failed to disclose lobbying on judicial issues, leading to the group updating its financial disclosures and Roth apologizing on a podcast episode for the omission.

In October, a Washington Examiner analysis found Fix the Court omitted speaking engagements by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor from its travel tracker for justices, prompting Fix the Court to update its website.

Launched in 2014, Fix the Court was formed as a project of the New Venture Fund, a key cog in the $1 billion Democratic-aligned Arabella Advisors dark money network. The controversies involving Fix the Court have resulted in Republicans decrying hypocrisy, since the group takes aim at the Supreme Court for its “disdain for openness and transparency.”

Fix the Court calls itself nonpartisan, and, as a charity, is required to be so under federal law. Still, the group’s ties to New Venture Fund and other left-wing grantmakers firmly align Fix the Court with the Left.

Roth is a former vice president at SKDK, an influential consulting firm working on behalf of Democrats. Fix the Court’s unpaid board members include Josh Cohen, a senior adviser to the Center for American Progress think tank, and Michelle Kuppersmith, the director of a progressive watchdog called Campaign for Accountability.

Fix the Court closed the books for its last fiscal year with roughly $72,000 in assets, illustrating how the group may be walking on thin ice heading into 2025. Tax documents say Fix the Court spent tens of thousands of dollars lobbying last year to improve “judicial ethics and accountability.”

“Fix the Court staff and contractors engaged in outreach to members of the press and public asserting that legislators should seek to introduce and pass legislation aimed at improving judiciary oversight,” Fix the Court said, according to the documents.

Roth did not respond to requests for comment.