Ginsburg earned more than $200K in book royalties, financial disclosure forms reveal
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg earned nearly $205,000 in royalties from her 2016 book, My Own Words, outpacing all other justices’ book earnings.
The royalties were among the revelations in new financial disclosure forms for last year filed by the justices, report the National Law Journal (sub. req.), BuzzFeed News, Bloomberg News, The Associated Press and the Washington Examiner.
The justice with the next highest book earnings was Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who earned nearly $45,000 for his 2015 book, The Court and the World: American Law and the New Global Realities.
Ginsburg’s book consists of a collection of her writings and speeches. According to Breyer’s publisher, his book “examines the work of the Supreme Court of the United States in an increasingly interconnected world.”
The disclosure forms also revealed:
• Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. sold as much as $500,000 in Microsoft stock last year before the Supreme Court granted review in Microsoft v. Baker, which involves certification of class actions.
• Justice Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. received as a gift a bronze cast of a hand valued at $3,000.
• Many justices earned income from teaching. Alito was paid more than $17,000 from Tulane University Law School for teaching at summer programs in Paris and Berlin, and $5,000 each from Duke University Law School and St. John’s College Law School. Justice Elena Kagan earned $15,000 from Harvard Law School. Justice Clarence Thomas earned $10,000 from George Washington University Law School; $9,500 from University of Georgia Law School; and $7,500 from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch has received an extension to file his disclosure form.
