The Supreme Court justice’s latest financial disclosure was released Friday, revealing details about the judge’s new rental property, hundreds of thousands of dollars in book royalties, and Beyonce gives away concert tickets.
The 2023 disclosures of eight of the nine current justices have been released, with Justice Samuel Alito receiving a 90-day extension.
Judges have submitted the documents annually for many years, but disclosures have come under greater scrutiny in recent years amid growing criticism of judges’ ethical standards.
Here are five revelations from the latest financial disclosures.
Thomas amended disclosure to include Harlan Crow’s trip
Justice Clarence Thomas Financial Disclosure That included an amendment to an application filed five years ago to include two trips paid for by billionaire Harlan Crow.
According to the disclosures, two trips in 2019 were “inadvertently omitted” from the “refund” section of his tax return when he filed that year, and Thomas reported the trips after receiving guidance from his “accountant and ethics counsel.”
The first trip that Crowe and his wife, Cathy, were reimbursed for was to Bali, Indonesia, on July 12, 2019. Thomas said he was a guest of Crowe and was reimbursed for hotel meals and accommodation.
ProPublica First reported Clowes wrote that Thomas and his wife, Ginny, were planning a trip to Indonesia, spending nine days island-hopping around the volcanic archipelago on a superyacht with Clowes and a cadre of valets and a private chef. The trip cost the Thomases more than $500,000, according to ProPublica, but was covered by Clowes.
A few days later, from July 18 to July 21, 2019, Thomas was a guest of Crowe in Monte Rio, California, where he was provided with meals and lodging at a private club. This trip is likely a reference to Bohemian Grove, a men-only retreat in California that both Thomas and Crowe reportedly attended.
Last year, Justice Thomas reported his travels for the first time after it became public knowledge that Justice Crow had paid for them, a development that also follows new guidelines that increase requirements for when judges must report their travel.
The judges will be compensated for 19 trips.
The eight justices detailed 19 reimbursed trips they took last year, including 11 paid for by the university, and many of the trips were previously known about.
Three of the judges had taught abroad and more than half had attended law school in the country, according to the documents.
In July, Justice Neil Gorsuch taught at a national security program hosted by George Mason University Law School in Portugal. Amy Coney Barrett The two traveled to London last spring to teach a seminar at Notre Dame Law School.
Nine of the trips were paid for by entities other than the university.
Among them is Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Traveled to Los Angeles Barbara Streisand will be presented with an award named after the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson visited 16th Street Baptist Church last September to speak at an event marking the 60th anniversary of the bombing that killed four black girls, where she warned that “discomfort” cannot stand in the way of the teaching of black history.
And Gorsuch Reported refunds He was sent by the Federalist Society for its educational programme in London.
Three judges earn book royalties
Three justices from the country’s highest court have made huge amounts of cash from book royalties.
Kavanaugh: He received $340,000 in royalties from Javelin Group and Regnery Publishing for the book, which has yet to be published.
Axios first reported on Thursday that the judge is writing a courtroom memoir covering everything from his controversial confirmation in 2018 to the assassination plot in 2022. The as-yet untitled book is expected to be published in 2025 or 2026, according to the outlet.
Sotomayor earned royalties from two books from Penguin Random House in 2023, totaling more than $86,000. Sotomayor has published five books with Penguin Random House, three of which are children’s books that have also been translated into Spanish. The other two books were also translated by the publisher’s Spanish-language division.
She also reported receiving $1,879 for her voice acting role in the animated series “Alma’s Way,” which aired on PBS Kids.
Gorsuch also reported receiving royalties from two publishers: $250,000 from HarperCollins and about $312 from Princeton University Press.
“Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” co-authored with Justice Gorsuch’s former clerk, Janie Nitze, is scheduled for publication in August. Justice Gorsuch’s 2009 book, “The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia,” was published by Princeton University Press.
Beyonce gifts Jackson concert tickets
Beyonce gifted Jackson four concert tickets last year. Jackson’s disclosure documents state:.
The documents don’t specify which concert the tickets are for, but Beyonce spent much of last year on her Renaissance World Tour, which included a show just outside Washington, DC.
The tickets, valued at $3,711.84, were among the notable gifts reported by the judge last year.
Jackson also reported that the Supreme Court bench had received $12,500 worth of artwork donated by two artists and an “HU scholar.”
Meanwhile, Justice Clarence Thomas reported receiving a photo album valued at $2,000 from Terry and Barbara Giroux.
Terry Giroux is executive director of the Alger Horatio Institute, a nonprofit scholarship organization of which Thomas is a member. Thomas became embroiled in controversy last year when a New York Times investigation detailed how the organization had given him access to a select group of wealthy conservative friends.
New rental property available in Sotomayor
Sotomayor has shared the first details of her newly renovated rental property near Miami.
The judge appears to have previously owned the home, but is only required to disclose properties used for investment purposes. The new documents describe the property as a “personal residence converted to rental use in 2023.”
Sotomayor said Zillow values the property at between $101,000 and $250,000, and noted that rental income last year was between $5,001 and $15,000.
The judge also reiterated that the couple is renting out a Manhattan property that still has a mortgage on it.
However, Sotomayor is not the only justice who owns rental property.
Chief Justice John Roberts Revealed again 1/8 interest in the family vacation home in Ireland and ownership of a vacation home in Maine.
Alito, who has yet to file his 2023 disclosure, has disclosed “mineral interests” in Oklahoma for years that brought in six-figure revenue in 2022.
Meanwhile, Justice Elena Kagan said, Rent a parking space According to the documents, the incident occurred in the nation’s capital.
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