Ketanji Brown Jackson has earned nearly $3M from her memoir, financial disclosures show

Politico

10 hours ago

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has joined the ranks of the Supreme Court's most highly-paid authors by collecting a book advance totaling almost $3 million for her memoir, according to a financial disclosure released Tuesday.
Jackson reported receiving $2 million of the advance last year for the book, on top of about $900,000 she was paid in 2023 by publisher Penguin Random House. The book, 'Lovely One,' reached No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list after its release last September.
The amount paid to the court's newest justice is roughly the same figure Justice Sonia Sotomayor received as an advance for her 2014 autobiography, 'My Beloved World.' Her disclosure released Tuesday reports that she received about $132,000 last year from Penguin Random House for her past books and a forthcoming one.
Sotomayor has earned a total of $3.9 million in advances and royalties from her books, according to Fix the Court, a watchdog group that analyzes the justices' annual financial disclosures. That's the highest book-related income of any current justice.
Three other justices have earned more than $1 million in income from books they have written, according to Fix the Court's analysis: Jackson at $2.9 million, Clarence Thomas at $1.5 million and Neil Gorsuch at $1.4 million.
Gorsuch reported in his new disclosure Tuesday a $250,000 advance last year from publisher HarperCollins for a book he co-authored about overregulation, 'Over Ruled.'
Justice Amy Coney Barrett is also writing a book, due out in September, titled 'Listening to the Law,' and published by an imprint of Penguin. She received a $425,000 advance for it in 2021.
Justice Samuel Alito was the only justice whose required financial disclosure was not released Tuesday. Alito delayed filing his report, as he has done each year for the past decade.
Alito requested a 90-day extension, a spokesperson for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said Tuesday as the reports from the eight other active justices and two retired justices were made public.
The book-related payments to the justices have sometimes complicated their judicial work. Sotomayor has faced criticism in the past for not recusing herself from cases involving Penguin Random House.
But last month, Sotomayor did recuse herself from considering a petition for the court to take up a case that involved Penguin's parent company, Bertelsmann. Four other justices also recused themselves, with most of those recusals likely triggered by the justices' book deals, though none of the justices explained why they were stepping aside. The result was that the court lacked a quorum, so a lower court's ruling in the case was automatically left in place. The lower court had dismissed a lawsuit against the company and various other publishers and authors.
The justices' book deals may prompt more recusals in the coming months in higher-profile cases. Penguin is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in 2023 against Florida officials over their efforts to restrict the availability of books in public school libraries.
The justices' financial disclosures have faced scrutiny in recent years after revelations about undeclared gifts that some of the justices received, as well as expensive trips that were provided to Thomas and Alito by billionaire friends.
The justices are required to disclose gifts valued at more than $480. This year, only Sotomayor disclosed any gifts. She said she accepted a $1,437 trip to Kansas City, Missouri, last August from a theater company there that was workshopping an adaptation of her diversity-themed children's book, 'Just Ask!'
Sotomayor also said she received a gift of legal treatises that she donated to the Supreme Court's collection.
Of the eight justices whose disclosures were released Tuesday, seven of them reported taking trips last year that were paid for by others. Only Thomas did not report any travel reimbursements.
Jackson appeared to receive the most travel reimbursements. She reported 17 trips, all within the U.S. Most were part of her book tour and paid for by her publisher.
Sotomayor spent 12 days in Europe last July at the expense of New York University and the University of Zurich in connection with speaking at events hosted by those schools. She also reported swapping a ticket she had bought for an unspecified concert last July for another less valuable one that offered 'greater security than the original seating.'
Chief Justice John Roberts reported being reimbursed for his travel expenses to teach a two-week course in Galway, Ireland, last July sponsored by the New England School of Law called 'The Supreme Court of the United States in Historical Perspective.' The class was co-taught by Harvard Law Professor Richard Lazarus, who was Roberts' roommate when both attended Harvard Law.
Roberts and several other justices reported receiving compensation for teaching classes.
Roberts also reported a one-eighth interest in a cottage in County Limerick, Ireland, that he reportedly owns along with other family members. It isn't much of a money-maker. He reported taking in less than $1,000 in rent for it in 2024 and valued his share at less than $15,000.
The released financial disclosures don't capture the justices' full wealth, because assets like homes, federal government retirement accounts and treasury securities don't need to be disclosed. However, the financial picture the forms do provide suggest Justice Brett Kavanaugh has the smallest investment portfolio.
Kavanaugh reported as his only investments bank accounts worth in total between $100,000 and $250,000 and a Texas retirement account worth less than $15,000 that likely belongs to his wife, who was an aide to George W. Bush when he served as Texas governor.
Most of the justices will make $303,600 in salary this year. Roberts, as the chief, gets a bit more: $317,500.