Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett received $425,000 from Javelin Group LLC for a book deal last year, according to financial reports released Thursday.
A 2021 financial disclosure report revealed the royalties received from the literary agency despite a lack of official announcement for Barrett’s upcoming book.
Barrett’s royalties for the book, which reportedly accompany a total $2 million advance, contribute to over double of her earnings for last year.
Along with her $268,300 salary as an associate justice, Barrett received $14,280 from the University of Notre Dame Law School for teaching there in 2021.
Reports in April shared that Barrett’s book will discuss judges’ responsibilities to leaving personal feelings and opinions out of official decisions, a matter that loomed large during Barrett’s 2020 confirmation hearings.
Barrett was grilled on her views on abortion and the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, which established a federal right to abortion, as well as her Catholic faith.
“If you’re asking whether I take my faith seriously and I’m a faithful Catholic, I am,” Barrett said during the hearings. “Although I would stress that my personal church affiliation or my religious belief would not bear in the discharge of my duties as a judge.”
Barrett was one of the four justices to concur with the leaked Supreme Court opinion by Justice Samuel Alito in early May that would overturn Roe v. Wade.
Fellow Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch, Sonya Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer also received incomes from books in 2021, according to their financial disclosure reports.
Each justice earned significantly less than Barrett, with Gorsuch leading the pack with $250,000 in earnings while Sotomayor received $110,000 and Breyer $8,000.
Sotomayor previously received a $1.175 million advance for her memoir published in 2013.
Justice Clarence Thomas has secured the highest book advance apart from Barrett’s, a sum of $1.5 million for his memoir published in 2007.