Delaware’s senators say they are concerned that Jennifer Mascott, a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, may not have been upholding her ethical obligations after a news report asserting that she moonlighted on the job. 

Mascott is facing scrutiny over a Politico report this month describing how she remained significantly involved in her late husband’s public relations company for at least six months after she was confirmed to the bench in October 2025. 

Mascott inherited an ownership stake in Adfero, a Washington, D.C., public affairs firm, when her husband died in 2023. After her confirmation to the 3^rd Circuit, she continued running Adfero’s day-to-day operations, including hiring and business pitches, until the firm went out of business in June, according to Politico.

Gabe Roth is executive director of Fix the Court, a nonpartisan advocacy group that campaigns for transparency and accountability in the federal judicial system. He says that if Mascott was holding down a second job while she was a federal judge, “that’s a bad look.”

“Judges have plenty of responsibilities other than hearing cases, but working at a public affairs firm isn’t one of them,” Roth says. 

Roth emphasizes that if the public perceives that judges are not primarily focused on their judicial duties, “it lowers people’s trust in the administration of justice.”

Chris Coons and Lisa Blunt Rochester, both Democratic senators from Delaware, said they are exploring options to address the situation, including possibly filing a formal ethics complaint with the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit, which handles cases from Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. 

“Secretly running a Washington PR firm while serving as an active federal judge flies in the face of the Code of Conduct. We deserve better,” Coons said in a statement.

Neither office immediately returned requests for comment. A message left at the 3^rd Circuit was not returned.

Mascott, a former White House lawyer, has taught at D.C.-area law schools, including the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law and the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.

Between 2008 and 2009, she clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas. She also clerked for Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

The judicial seat Mascott was nominated to fill has traditionally been reserved for someone with deep ties to Delaware. During her confirmation process, Coons and Rochester protested that Mascott has never practiced law in Delaware, although she owns a home in Bethany Beach, Delaware.

At the time, Coons and Rochester said, “As far as we know, her relationship to Delaware is confined to a vacation beach house she sometimes visits in our state.”

The Code of Conduct for United States Judges lays out ethical rules for judges that emphasize prioritizing judicial duties, ensuring the appearance of propriety and minimizing outside financial and business activities. It states that judges may be involved in businesses outside of their judicial duties “only if the business is closely held and controlled by members of the judge’s family.” The code also states that judges should avoid business dealings that “exploit” a judge’s position or involve people that might come before the judge's court.

Stephen Gillers is a professor at the New York University School of Law, where he specializes in ethics and professional responsibility. He says the rules allow for judges to wind down those private financial or professional activities that would otherwise significantly interfere with their ability to perform their judicial duties.

Gillers also says that the “rules do not forbid judges” from moonlighting but that those activities are expected to be incidental to the primary work of being a judge. He declined to speculate on Mascott’s situation.

Charles Geyh, a professor at Indiana University Maurer School of Law, teaches and writes about judicial conduct and ethics. Geyh says there’s a concern that a judge could be “lending the prestige of her status as a judge to help the business.”

“If we’re talking about running a seed mill operation,” then it doesn’t matter whether the person at the helm is also a judge, Geyh says. But “a federal judge at the helm of Washington, D.C., public relations firm” could be a different matter.