June 7, 2024
What do paid trips to Bali and Beyonce tickets have to do with the Supreme Court?
Those are just some of the disclosures the justices made in their newly released 2023 financial disclosure forms. Now – I know paperwork sounds super boring and it usually is – but in the last year or so – those forms from the justices have become very controversial for what was not being disclosed. Those omissions have raised questions about ethics and impropriety and has caused congress to push for a more formal code of ethics for the supreme court.
So let’s run through these forms and see where the justices are getting their money. And yes – there are some disclosures from Justice Clarence Thomas in these new forms that were not disclosed in years past.
Obviously – the justices get a salary for sitting on the Supreme Court. It’s a federal government job. As of 2024 the Chief Justice John Roberts makes $312,200 a year and all the rest of the associate justices make $298,500 a year. But the money disclosed on these forms is money they make above and beyond that.
I’ll start with Justice Amy Coney Barrett because her form is pretty standard for these justices. It’s a good baseline.
You can see that she retains her status as an adjunct professor at the Notre Dame law school. Her spouse’s income is also listed. Then there are a bunch of reimbursements for transportation, food and lodging for her to attend all these speaking events. Then she lists the debts of herself and her family on these three lines they’re all valued at “k” which means between $15,000-$50,000 each. Then there are all these pages of investments and trust income at varying value. Then there is this last section that gives additional explanations for certain things that are disclosed. This is all pretty standard for what these forms usually look like.
So now that you know that – let’s look at Justice Clarence Thomas.
He disclosed a gift of two photo albums worth $2000 from this couple. The husband is the founder of the association that Thomas is a honorary board member of. But then the interesting part of Thomas’s disclosure is the last page when he disclosed two trips from 2019 that he didn’t disclose on his forms back then. Both paid for by Harlan Crow the same conservative billionaire mega donor who has been paying for trips for the Thomases for years and also paid Justice Thomas $133,000 to purchase all three of Thomas’s family homes in Georgia back in 2014 – which the justice did not disclose until last year. In this new form Justice Thomas says crow paid for food and lodging at a hotel in Bali for one-day in July of 2019 and then paid for food and lodging at a private club that Crow owns in Sonoma County California for three days in July of 2019. Justice Thomas has said firmly that Harlan Crow is a lifelong friend and there is no influence peddling happening.
The other interesting disclosure form is from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She disclosed that she received four tickets to Beyoncé’s concert from Beyoncé Knowles Carter worth about $3700. Plus a total of about $12,500 in artwork for her chambers. Justice Jackson also disclosed she received a huge check of almost $900,000 as a book advance from penguin random house. Now – look – I know that sounds like a lot of money, but the fact is almost every single justice has a book deal. They all write books. They all get money like this.
Case in point – justice Neil Gorsuch disclosed that in 2023 he received $250,000 in just royalties for his published book. Justice Brett Kavanaugh reported $340,000 of income just from his book royalties. Justice Sonya Sotomayor reported a total of about $87,000 in 2023 just from her book royalties.
A could of fun facts – Justice Sotomayor disclosed she received about $1900 for voicing a character of herself on the PBS children’s show “Alma’s Way,” an animated series about a Puerto Rican girl and her family from the Bronx. And Justice Brett Kavanaugh disclosed that he’s a coach for a 5th and 6th grade girls basketball team at a Catholic school in Washington DC.
Justice Roberts and Justice Kagan have very standard forms and justice Samuel Alito received a 90-day extension to file his form – as he does every single year.
Find the Supreme Court disclosure forms here.
