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WASHINGTON (CN) — Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court received more than $2 million in book deals last year, continuing a lucrative trend for the high court’s jurists, some of whom have already raked in millions of dollars moonlighting as authors.
And in their annual financial disclosure forms, made public Monday, some of the justices reported high-dollar gifts, including tickets to a concert in Puerto Rico and an artist commission for a painting to be hung in one jurist’s chambers at One First Street.
Justices’ collective book earnings for 2025 topped $2.4 million — though that figure was largely underpinned by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who ended last year as the bench’s highest-earning author. The jurist disclosed a roughly $1.2 million book advance payment from publishing company Penguin Random House, which, according to the report, was paid out to KayPac LLC, a limited liability company governed by the justice.
In a close second was Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who reported publication and copyright royalties totaling nearly $850,000. Justice Neil Gorsuch likewise disclosed roughly $300,000 in book income. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, for her part, netted a paltry $87,000 off four separate royalty checks from Penguin Random House.
None of the other eight justices whose financial disclosure documents were published Monday reported any book income. Justice Samuel Alito, whose book “So Ordered: An Originalist View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country” is slated to come out this fall, once again requested a 90-day extension on his own report, according to a judiciary spokesperson.
Book deals have become a major income stream for sitting Supreme Court justices, who, after last year’s earnings, have collectively taken in more than $13 million in advances and royalty payments. With her latest disclosure, Jackson has leapfrogged Sotomayor as the highest-earning jurist author — her net income from books during her time on the bench now exceeds $4 million.
Gabe Roth, director of reform-minded judicial advocacy group Fix the Court, said in a statement that the judiciary needed to “think more critically” about the ethical pitfalls of allowing Supreme Court justices to rake in millions of dollars from book deals.
“On the one hand, Supreme Court justices earn only a fraction of what they could command in the private sector, making the appeal of a seven-figure advance difficult to ignore,” said Roth. “On the other, these sums put pressure on the justices to promote their books, which all too often means speaking before audiences that align with their ideological views — not what we want to see from a supposedly apolitical branch.”
Some of the justices’ financial disclosure reports also included high-dollar gifts. Members of the high court bench are required to disclose any gift valued at $480 or more.
Among the gifts disclosed by the justices Monday were concert tickets, reported by Sotomayor and valued at around $4,300. The justice said in a footnote that she’d received the tickets from independent record label Rimas Entertainment and had used them to attend an event with guests during a private trip to Puerto Rico in August 2025.
San Juan-based Rimas Entertainment is the record label that manages smash-hit rapper and producer Bad Bunny. The artist last year held a historic 30-show residency in Puerto Rico, which lasted from July to September 2025.
A spokesperson for the Supreme Court did not immediately return a request for comment on whether Sotomayor had attended a Bad Bunny show thanks to a gift from his record label.
Sotomayor on Monday also reported a roughly $600 gift from a Kansas City theater, which she said paid for return airfare from Missouri after she attended the opening performance of the “Just Ask!” musical based on a 2019 children’s book written by the justice.
Jackson, meanwhile, disclosed a $2,500 gift in the form of a painting from a Chicago-based artist that she said would be hung in her chambers.
Several justices also reported teaching income, a common side gig for the jurists. Chief Justice John Roberts reported $25,000 in payments for a two-week course he taught in 2024 at New England Law. Barrett and Justice Brett Kavanaugh each disclosed roughly $33,000 in teaching income from Notre Dame Law School. And Justice Clarence Thomas reported $18,000 in earnings from teaching at Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law.
Alito’s financial disclosure reports are expected later this summer. Federal law permits justices to request “reasonable extensions” to the filing deadline — Alito has now made such requests 15 years in a row.
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