- Amy Coney Barrett received $425,000 in 2021 for a forthcoming book, according to financial disclosures.
- It's the largest payment in book income that a justice received last year.
- Justice Neil Gorsuch reported receiving a $699.99 pair of cowboy boots.
Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett made $425,000 for a forthcoming book in 2021, the largest payment that any Supreme Court justice received in book deals that year, according to new financial disclosures released Thursday reported by multiple news outlets.
Barrett, who was appointed to the court in 2020 by former President Donald Trump, received the payment from the literary agency Javelin Group, The Washington Post reported.
Politico reported last April that Barrett secured a $2 million advance for a book months after she joined the court. The book will be about "how judges are not supposed to bring their personal feelings into how they rule," industry sources told the news outlet. The Associated Press reported at the time that Barrett signed the book deal with Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin Random House.
Other justices who reported book payments last year include Neil Gorsuch, who received $250,000 from HarperCollins, and Sonia Sotomayor, who earned $115,000 from Penguin Random House.
Justice Stephen Breyer, who is retiring this summer and will be replaced by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, reported $8,000 in book income, Bloomberg Law reported.
The annual salary for the associate justices of the Supreme Court is $274,200. Chief Justice John Roberts earned $286,700.
Besides their sources of income, justices also report gifts they receive in their financial reports. Gorsuch reported a $699.99 pair of cowboy boots related to a Texas Supreme Court Historical Society event, according to The Post.
The Supreme Court has recently faced public criticism over a lack of strict financial disclosure requirements. The Wall Street Journal released a bombshell report last September that found more than 130 federal judges violated legal and ethics rules for failing to recuse themselves from cases involving companies in which they or their family members owned stock.
Shortly after, congressional lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill in October that would make federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, report stock trades of more than $1,000 within a 45-day time frame. Last month, President Joe Biden signed the legislation into law.