The chief justice of the Supreme Court, in his year-end report, called on federal judges to work hard to adhere to ethics rules after more than 100 were caught violating a rule that requires judges to recuse themselves in any matter in which they have a personal financial interest. Chief Justice John Roberts cited (pdf) a Wall Street Journal investigation that uncovered violations by 131 federal judges across 685 cases between 2010 and 2018. The George W. Bush appointee portrayed the number of violations as small, noting that they represented less than 0.03 percent of the 2.5 million civil cases filed in the district courts during the years studied. “Let me be crystal clear: the Judiciary takes this matter seriously. We expect judges to adhere to the highest standards, and those judges violated an ethics rule. But I do want to put these lapses in context,” Roberts said. The wording drew a …