This year’s reports also highlight the justices’ growing security needs amid a heighten threat environment

Supreme Court justices continue to rack up the zeroes on book advances and royalty payments, as new annual disclosures — eight of the nine were released today — reveal that in 2024 they collectively surpassed $10 million in book earnings.

The biggest earner last year was Justice Jackson, who was paid the second part ($2,068,750) of her $2.96 million advance for her autobiography.

Justice Sotomayor crept ever-so-close to reaching the $4 million mark on her own by bringing in $73,944 in royalties for her various works and $60,000 in advances, and Justice Gorsuch earned a quarter million dollars thanks to royalties from his Over Ruled.

A table of the justices’ book earnings since confirmation is here and at the end of the release.

Justice Sotomayor was the only justice to report gifts last year, and she listed three of them. Most interestingly, she wrote that she received a $1,437 gift from the Coterie Theater in Kansas City, Mo., which staged an adaptation for her kids book Just Ask! 

Had the justice been flown commercial or business, she could have listed this as a “reimbursement” and not a “gift,” which means she may have flown private (private flights are gifts) and listed the cost as the “most analogous commercially available substitute, e.g., transportation aboard a private aircraft should be valued at the cost of a first-class ticket for a similar route on a commercial air carrier,” per the filing instructions (p. 44).

Fix the Court has reached out to SCOTUS for clarification. (Update: it wasn’t a private plane, and because attending a theatrical adaptation of her book isn’t official business, this was closer to a “gift” than a “reimbursement” under the rules.)

In terms of the other Sotomayor gifts, the set of books she received and donated to SCOTUS are commercially available for $1,836, i.e., above the reporting threshold of $480, and it’s unknown for which concert she was given an upgraded ticket, which she wrote “provided greater security than the original seating.”

Sotomayor inherited stock in one company in 2023, Principal Financial Group, and sold all her shares in 2024. Chief Justice Roberts maintained shares in two companies, Lam Research and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

See the justices’ stock ownership since 2010 here.

Several justices received items and experiences that appear to be gifts but were not reported in their disclosures, either because they may have been below the threshold or are not seen as traditional gifts.

Justice Jackson fulfilled a dream by scoring a minor role for one night in a Broadway show, &Juliet, which came with speaking lines and a part in a musical number. This role is absolutely a reportable thing of value — last year someone paid $20,000 for a walk-on part in Chicago — yet her appearance was not included in her disclosure. It should have been.

Sotomayor and Jackson also received a medal and a plaque, respectively, whose value likely fell below the 2024 gift-reporting threshold of $480. FTC supports legislation to report all gifts above $50 in value or ban their acceptance outright.

Unlike her 2022 Vogue photoshoot, it appears that Jackson was not gifted, at least according to her FDR, the clothes she wore for her 2024 ELLE photoshoot. Neither Jackson’s August trip to Martha’s Vineyard nor Justice Kavanaugh’s three fall visits to Notre Dame Stadium were included in these reports, indicating the justices likely paid themselves.

Justice Thomas, per his disclosures, didn’t receive any reportable travel in 2024 — his May trip to the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Conference in Alabama, presumably paid for by the third branch, was not reportable — but he did note that he failed to include a whole life insurance policy that he purchased in 2001 and sold in 2025. These types of policies often send dividends to policyholders — Thomas reported receiving up to $5,000 from Mutual of New York on a policy worth up to $250,000 last year — so it’s unclear how Thomas or his accountant missed this over the previous two-plus decades.

Also regarding Thomas, nothing in his disclosure explained his Apr. 15, 2024, absence from the bench, and nothing else released today gave any additional hints about Justice Gorsuch’s Dec. 2024 recusal in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle Co. or Justice Barrett’s Jan. 2025 recusal in Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond (both likely due to ongoing friendships).

Several justices — Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett — also received about $30,000 from teaching, and Roberts’ 2024 teaching earnings, he wrote, were not paid out until 2025. (Last year’s statutory outside income threshold was $33,285.)

Finally, perhaps more than the missing gifts, other omissions from the disclosures tell an important story.

Though 38 reimbursed or gifted trips were included — Jackson led the way with 15 — what’s not included, since they don’t have to be, were the security costs to Supreme Court Police and U.S. Marshals Service details, and at times to Diplomatic Security, that enabled these trips to happen, each of which, depending on the trip length and the in-town availability of personnel, may have amounted to several tens of thousands of dollars or more to carry out. On top of that, the justices today must also bring security when going to visit family, see a show or merely exercise outside.

“Given the critical role the justices play in our democracy, we should want them to be out on the road, speaking to judicial colleagues, law students and regular people nationwide,” Fix the Court’s Gabe Roth said. “These disclosures are a reminder, especially as we’re days away from a House Subcommittee reviewing the third branch’s security request, that such interactions will only continue if the nine feel as if they have ample security coverage amid a heightened threat environment. I hope and pray that they get what they’ve asked for.”

Justice Alito requested an extension for the 14th year in a row, and his disclosure will likely be released later this summer.