By Nate Raymond
June 29 (Reuters) – Four U.S. Supreme Court justices earned more than $2 million in combined book payments in 2025, according to financial disclosure reports released on Monday that also detailed lucrative teaching positions the court’s members held and free concert tickets that one received from Bad Bunny’s record label.
Eight of the nine justices disclosed their 2025 outside income and gifts, as required for certain senior government officials. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito was granted a 90-day extension to file his financial disclosure report.
The filings showed the outside income, gifts and investment transactions for the justices last year. Such filings have garnered increased interest in recent years following revelations that some of them previously failed to report luxury trips, including on private jets and yachts, and real estate transactions.
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson reported a $1.18 million book advance last year from Penguin Random House, which published her memoir “Lovely One” in 2024. That is on top of nearly $2.07 million in book advance income she reported receiving from Penguin in 2024.
She also disclosed a $2,500 gift in the form of a painting from Chicago artists Paul Branton and Kristen Williams that will hang in her chambers. Branton in a social media post last year described providing a portrait of the justice, titled “Worthy,” as a gift to her.
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor reported $88,100 in royalties from Penguin for her children’s books “Turning Pages” and “Just Ask!” Sotomayor said those amounts were net of her literary agent’s commission, and that Penguin advised her it spent $7,473 to support the sale of “Just Shine!”
Sotomayor also disclosed that she had received concert tickets worth $4,333 from the record company Rimas Entertainment, which “provided tickets for a concert for me and guests while I was on a private trip to Puerto Rico in August 2025.”
Her disclosure report did not identify what concert Sotomayor attended. The performers that the Puerto Rican record label represents include the rapper Bad Bunny, who was at the time in the midst of a high-profile, 30-plus concert series in San Juan.
The court and Rimas did not immediately respond to requests for more information on Monday.
Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who in 2025 published a book titled “Listening to the Law,” reported earning $849,071 in book royalties from Javelin Group, a literary agency.
Barrett and conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh also reported earning $33,285 each in teaching income from the University of Notre Dame Law School, where both are adjunct professors.
Chief Justice John Roberts reported that he was paid $25,000 by New England Law, a private Boston-based law school. He had last year disclosed teaching a two-week course in Galway, Ireland, in July 2024 for the school, but his compensation was not reported at the time because he was paid in February 2025.
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas likewise reported teaching income, $18,000 from Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch reported $30,380 in teaching income from George Mason University and $300,361 in book royalty income, mostly from HarperCollins. The publisher recently published a children’s book he co-wrote titled “Heroes of 1776: The Story of the Declaration of Independence.”
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Will Dunham)
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