Justice Jackson Reports Earning Over $2 Million for Memoir (1)

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson reported making over $2 million off her memoir last year, according to her financial disclosure released Tuesday.

The extra income is in addition to the $893,750 advance she reported earning in 2023 for “Lovely One,” which Penguin Random House published in September. As an associate justice, Jackson received a salary of $298,500 in 2024, according to the Federal Judicial Center.

Jackson is one of several justices who have significantly supplemented their judicial salaries in recent years with book deals. Jackson’s royalties for this year is nearly seven times her salary as a justice.

Jackson’s financial disclosure released in 2023 made headlines for listing lavish gifts she had received during her first year on the bench. She disclosed receiving a floral arrangement from talk show host Oprah Winfrey that was valued at $1,200 and keeping the designer dress and jacket from a Vogue photo shoot worth $6,580 after she was confirmed to the court in April 2022.

Justice Neil Gorsuch on Tuesday reported $250,000 for his book, which was also published last year. In “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” which he co-authored with his former law clerk Janie Nitze, Gorsuch writes about the impact of over regulation.

He received a total of $500,000 in book royalties from HarperCollins Publishers LLC paid in two installments in 2021 and 2023.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett is expected to release a book in September titled “Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution.”

She didn’t report receiving any advances or royalties for the book last year, which will detail her daily life as a Supreme Court justice and how she deals with “media scrutiny,” according to her publisher Sentinel Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group.

Barrett disclosed receiving $425,000 in “book royalties” in 2021 from Javelin Group LLC, a literary agency based in Alexandria, Va. The deal she signed for the book was reportedly for $2 million.

The deals have the potential to interfere with the justices’ work if disputes involving the publishers reach the high court.

In May, five justices refused to hear a dispute that accused prominent authors like journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates of plagiarism in books published by Penguin Random House. Four of the five justices who recused had authored books with Penguin Random House, whose parent company, Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, was a defendant in the dispute. The recusals left the court without a quorum, meaning the court couldn’t decide the case.

Teaching Gigs

The justices also make extra income teaching. Barrett and Justice Brett Kavanaugh both reported earning $31,815 as an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School. Gorsuch made more than $30,000 teaching at George Mason University.

The financial disclosures have attracted public attention in recent years due to alleged ethics lapses by the justices, including failure to report lavish vacations and flights on private planes.

Justice Clarence Thomas has repeatedly been the subject of such reports and has amended some past filings as a result. A footnote of Thomas’ disclosure for last year said he “inadvertently omitted” a life insurance policy from prior reports that was originally purchased in 2001 from the Mutual of New York, a subsidiary of the Equitable Life Insurance Company.

“The omission was inadvertent and unintentional as filer was not the insured or owner of the policy and confusion arose on whether the policy needed to be disclosed,” the statement said.

Justice Samuel Alito, as has become his usual practice, received a 90-day extension to file his report.