SCOTUS Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Book Deals Spark Ethics Questions Amid $3 Million Advances

The Supreme Court’s 2024 financial disclosures revealed that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson received a massive advance exceeding $2 million from Penguin Random House for her memoir Lovely One.

The payment has raised questions among conservatives about the ethics of justices profiting from lucrative book deals while serving on the nation’s highest court.

According to Jackson’s disclosure report, the $2,068,750 advance paid in 2024 adds to nearly $900,000 she received in 2023, bringing her total earnings from the publisher to nearly $3 million over just two years.

While the Supreme Court recently adopted a formal ethics code addressing gifts and travel reimbursements, it currently places no cap on the income justices can receive from book deals or royalties.

Lovely One was published in early September 2024 and details Jackson’s family journey from a segregated America to her historic confirmation on the Supreme Court.

Her promotional tour included stops in major cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Miami and Atlanta, where the publisher covered transportation, lodging and food expenses.

Who would buy a book written by a person that cannot define what a woman is?