Despite receiving over $3 million from Penguin Random House for her memoir, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor did not recuse herself from cases involving the book publishing company.
Public disclosures reveal that she was paid nearly $1.2 million for a book advance from Knopf Doubleday Group, a subsidiary of the publishing conglomerate, with an additional $1.9 million in advance payments received in 2012. In 2013, Aaron Greenspan sued Random House, alleging that the company had rejected his book proposal about Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook while awarding a deal to another author on the same subject that later became the movie The Social Network.
Although Aaron Greenspan vs. Random House reached the Supreme Court, it was eventually denied a hearing.
Starting in 2017 and continuing through at least 2021, Sotomayor received yearly payments from Penguin Random House amounting to around $500,000. In total, she received roughly $3.6 million from Random House and its subsidiaries. Despite this, she participated in later cases involving the publishing company.
One such case was in October 2019 when children’s author Jennie Nicassio filed a lawsuit against Random House, accusing them of selling a book that was almost identical to hers. Nicassio petitioned the court to hear her case, but was eventually denied.
Public disclosures reveal that Sotomayor’s largest ever check for royalties from Random House was $82,807, which was due to arrive in May of that year. The Supreme Court does not disclose individual justices’ voting decisions on cases but does report when they recuse themselves. In this instance, Sotomayor did not recuse herself from cases involving Random House.
These disclosures have surfaced amidst recent controversy surrounding Justice Clarence Thomas, who accepted vacations from GOP mega-donor Harlan Crow. ProPublica recently published a report revealing that Crow also paid for Thomas’ great-nephew to attend a private school.
And while the mainstream media goes nuts over Clarence Thomas’s friendships, Sonia Sotomayor’s are apparently A-OK.
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6 Responses
There is no Clarence Thomas scandal. Completely shlugged up in Wall Street Journal.
Sotomayer disclosed all of those payments (which were relatively small change for a major book deal) and the publisher’s case before the court was a matter of public record and widely reported. Thomas NEVER reported most of the payments from his right-wing chaver and in one instance, KellyAnne Conway went to great lengths to keep Ginny Thomas’ name hidden. If not for some great reporting by pro publica, we would never have known about this.
SHe should have recused heerself.
However.
She disclosed the payments.
He didn’t.
She was paid for a service.
He wasn’t.
His payments (to himself and to his wife) have been ongoing.
Hers have not been.
When reading this article, I was waiting for the time when Sotomayor heard an actual caae which involved her publisher. It didn’t! If she had heard any of these cases and didn’t recuse herself for conflict of interest (which happens) then this would be a problem. Even so, Elana Kagan was obviously dean of Harvad Law School but still heard a case involving Harvard. This wasn’t an issue.
It seems that lawyers are also more obsessed with one whilst ignoring the other. As I was subjected to listening to this in real time, I wondered how a trip to a vacation home really influences someone’s ruling on The Court. It’s temporary, and doesn’t change ones life in any way. You either had a nice few days, or you just don’t go. Big deal. But I guess a few million dollars from a publisher (who seems akin to an employer almost) has no issues? Hypocrisy at it’s best.
The bias is not blatant. Sotomayor’s receipts were properly disclosed. Thomas’s receipts were not.