Here’s a suggestion for U.S. Supreme Court Justices who are not already doing just what I have in mind:

In the long summer recess, while your clerks are swimming in the “cert pool” studying the hundreds of cases seeking review, and if you’re not already doing it, get up to the air-conditioned attic at home and make some progress on “the book.”

Writing for fun and profit hasn’t quite replaced traveling to exotic places—and I’m not talking about Omaha and Des Moines, but Florence, Italy, for a short-course to awe-struck law students—but it’s surely a lot better paying.  And you can dodge potentially tough questions about opinions which have turned your formal office into an fortress and spoil your nights out for dinner at fancy downtown cafes.

Take Amy Coney Barrett, the newest justice (except for Ketanja Brown Jackson who has yet to hear a case).  The latest reports on her earnings as an author put her “way up there.”  She’s already received $425,000 on a deal which will bring her millions from the Javelin literary agency, and the book isn’t even out.

You will remember that Justice Neil Gorsuch received $650,000 for his “A Republic, if You Can Keep It,” and just a year ago, the now-retired Justice Stephen Breyer published a book (which I might have put on the fiction shelf, “The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics.”  Who knows what that will make him, since SCOTUS financial disclosures are a year behind real time?

Justice Sonia Sotomayor is a big player in the publishing game, having earned more than three million in the last dozen years.

Yes, justices still teach, but they don’t earn anywhere near what they can get for a book.  For many years, Justice Clarence Thomas came to Creighton and co-taught a class with Mike Fenner. The latest disclosures showed Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh teaching at George Mason each for $25,000 and Alito at Regent for $9,000 and Duke for $15,000.

Of course, justices may attend conferences or “non-partisan” events with expenses paid but no honorarium offered or paid.

I have no idea whether justices who write books use their government-paid clerks to assist them with research, drafting or proofing. It would seem that such employment is unethical, but one may never find out.  For many years Ted Sorensen was asked whether he had helped John F. Kennedy write, “Profiles in Courage.” His standard, sly reply was, “Ask not….” Only later in his great memoir, “Counselor,” did Sorensen reveal the entire story of his agreement with JFK over “Profiles” and other literary partnerships.

While the pay of justices is good by federal government standards, it is peanuts when compared with the salary of equity partners at Biglaw firms, which is about $1.2 million a year.  As a matter of fact, readers of this column know that former Supreme Court clerks made a signing bonus of $450,000 on top of their first-year salary in 2021!

Richard Shugrue is a professor emeritus at the Creighton University School of Law and a columnist for The Daily Record.

Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.