“The problem at the Supreme Court is there’s no one there to say whether this is wrong,” said Kedric Payne from the Campaign Legal Center.
QUICK FACTS:
- Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s staff has pushed public colleges and libraries to purchase her books.
- Documents obtained by The Associated Press revealed that taxpayer-funded court staff is working for the benefit of Sotomayor’s personal book ventures.
- Such activities are prohibited for members of Congress and the executive branch.
- During one book tour to Oregon, Sotomayor aid Anh Le said organizers of the event did not purchase enough copies of the book, as attendees had to have the book in hand in order to meet the Supreme Court Justice.
- “For an event with 1,000 people and they have to have a copy of Just Ask to get into the line, 250 books is definitely not enough,” Le wrote. “Families purchase multiples and people will be upset if they are unable to get in line because the book required is sold out.”
- In another incident, Le wrote library staffers, “Can you please show me the screen where people can purchase books?”
- Le asked, “Are you just placing Just Ask … on the portal or all of the Justice’s books?”
- “Is there a reminder going out that people need to purchase a book at the event or bring a book to get into the signing line?” Le asked elsewhere in another email. “Most of the registrants did not purchase books,” noting that the amount of books the library purchased was “definitely not enough.”
- During another event, UC Davis Law School head of marketing and communications Kelley Wiss wrote to the school’s dean that the idea of setting up a book table during a graduation celebration was questionable: “I’m not sure this is a good idea, have we ever allowed other speakers to sell or offer their books (that we have purchased for guests)?”
- “I think having a table of her books could be out of place,” Weiss cautioned.
- While someone close to Sotomayor has said that the justice “has not and will not profit from sales” beyond a $3.1 million advance, the justice has earned at least $400,000 in royalties since 2019.
SUPREME COURT LACKS FORMAL CODE OF CONDUCT:
- “Chambers staff assist the Justices in complying with judicial ethics guidance for such visits, including guidance relating to judges’ publications,” reads a Supreme Court statement.
- “For example, judicial ethics guidance suggests that a judge may sign copies of his or her work, which may also be available for sale, but there should be no requirement or suggestion that attendees are required to purchase books in order to attend.”
- The document adds that “Justices are limited to earning only around $30,000 per year for teaching activity.”
- Other Supreme Court justices have also earned money from various events.
- Justice Clarence Thomas has earned about $1 million since 2006.
- Retired Stephen Breyer reported about $700,000 in royalties throughout the last twenty years.
- Justice Neil Gorsuch reported over $900,000 since being confirmed in 2017, while Justice Amy Coney Barrett reportedly received a $2 million advance for an upcoming book.
- Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is currently part of a book deal, although her advance is not known.
BACKGROUND:
- The Supreme Court recently ruled that race-based admissions violate the Constitution, effectively ending affirmative action.
- Justice Roberts wrote in the majority opinion: “The Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause. Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today.”
- Justice Sotomayor, in her dissenting opinion, wrote that the Court “stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress. It holds that race can no longer be used in a limited way in college admissions to achieve such critical benefits.”
