Washington — Annual financial disclosures for members of the Supreme Court were released to the public Tuesday, detailing the gifts and incomes the justices received in 2024, as well as any positions held outside of the court.
Reports for eight of the nine sitting members of the high court were due on May 15. Justice Samuel Alito requested a 90-day extension, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, as he has done in the past.
The financial disclosure report showed three of the justices — Sonia Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch and Ketanji Brown Jackson — brought in money from books last year. Jackson raked in $2 million from Penguin Random House, the publisher of her memoir, “Lovely One,” while Sotomayor earned more than $130,000 in royalties and an advance. Gorsuch brought in $250,000 in royalties from HarperCollins Publishers, and an additional $259 from Princeton University Press.
Sotomayor said that she visited the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri, to “review a workshop performance” of “Just Ask,” her children’s book that was adapted as a musical. The trip was valued at $1,437, according to her report.
The justice also listed reimbursements for travel, lodging and meals from universities in the U.S., Panama, Switzerland and Austria, where she participated in conferences and other speaking events.
Justice Clarence Thomas, whose disclosures have come under scrutiny because of travels with his longtime friend and real estate developer Harlan Crow, reported no gifts, reimbursements or outside income from last year. He remains an honorary member of the Horatio Alger Association, according to his filing.
Several Supreme Court members disclosed teaching positions, including Chief Justice John Roberts, who taught a two-week course for New England Law’s summer program in Galway, Ireland, in July 2024. Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett each were adjunct professors at Notre Dame Law School, earning just over $31,800 apiece, according to their reports. Gorsuch taught at George Mason University last year and was paid $30,000.
Kavanaugh continues to coach girls’ basketball, his disclosure shows.
Filed annually to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the disclosures have received heightened attention since ProPublica revealed in 2023 luxury trips Thomas accepted from Crow, a major GOP donor, across their more than two-decade-long friendship. The justice’s vacations to Bali and a private club in California had not been included on his financial disclosure reports at the time, and flights on Crow’s private plane had also been omitted.
Thomas has long maintained that he did not believe he had to disclose the travel and vowed to comply with guidelines about personal hospitality issued in 2023 by the Judicial Conference, the policymaking body for the federal judiciary. His report for 2022 did include flights Thomas took aboard Crow’s private jet, as well as lodging at the developer’s property in the Adirondacks. Thomas’ disclosure form covering 2023 included an amendment to his 2019 report that listed two trips he took with Crow that year to Bali and Monte Rio, California.
Still, the details about his travels with Crow ignited calls for a code of conduct for the Supreme Court. The high court adopted formal ethics rules and principles in November 2023, which all nine justices pledged to adhere to. But the code came under scrutiny because it does not include a mechanism for enforcement.
