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. The reports also detailed lucrative teaching positions the court’s members held and free concert tickets that one received from Bad Bunny’s record label.
Financial Disclosure Reports
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.
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.
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.”
Teaching Income
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 $361,000 in book royalty income, mostly from HarperCollins.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
