Landsman pushes ban on Supreme Court prediction market and stock trading
Congressman Greg Landsman (OH-01) is leading a congressional effort to ban both stock trading and prediction market participation for Supreme Court justices and other federal officials. The Cincinnati-area Democrat's proposal targets traditional securities trading and event-contract markets alike. The measure comes amid broader scrutiny of financial conflicts among high-ranking government officials. If enacted, the ban would extend existing ethics concerns from the legislative branch to the judiciary and broader federal workforce.
This proposal widens the congressional crackdown from elected lawmakers to appointed justices and career officials, forcing Kalshi and Polymarket to prepare for a second front of account closures well beyond the House panel's existing bill targeting Congress. Supreme Court participation on these platforms is minimal today, but the precedent matters: if justices are deemed too conflicted to trade event contracts, federal judges and senior regulators become the next logical targets. That expands the population of barred users from hundreds of members of Congress to tens of thousands of federal employees, eroding the institutional-trader narrative CFTC-registered platforms have used to court sophisticated capital. The timing compresses their compliance runway, since any of these bills could attach to must-pass legislation before operators can build screening tools broad enough to catch the expanded category.
Landsman's proposal joins a crowded legislative sprint that already includes a House panel bill barring Congress from Kalshi and Polymarket, a Senate measure to ban sports event contracts outright, and a separate House push to block politicians from political prediction markets entirely.