WASHINGTON — In a monthslong inquiry, which included reviewing tens of 1000’s of pages of documents from greater than 100 public records requests, The Associated Press has examined what happens behind the scenes when Supreme Court justices travel to high schools and universities for lectures and other events.
The AP learned the identities of donors and politicians invited to events with justices, details in regards to the perks which have accompanied the varsity visits and data about how school trips have helped advance books sales.
A few of the key takeaways:
Book sales
The documents reveal how university visits are a convenient way for justices to sell their very own books. That’s very true within the case of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a prolific creator who has kept the court’s most lively travel schedule over the past decade, in line with the records reviewed by the AP.
Emails and other documents show that Supreme Court staff members have been directly engaged in facilitating book sales by asking schools what number of copies they need to buy and by helping to rearrange the acquisition of mass quantities.
At a 2019 event jointly hosted by the Multnomah County Library in Oregon and Portland Community College, a Sotomayor aide told organizers that “250 books is unquestionably not enough” for a program with an expected 1,000 guests during which people can be required to have a replica to fulfill the justice for a signing after the event.
Michigan State University purchased 11,000 copies to be distributed to incoming first-year students. When Clemson University in South Carolina apprehensive that 60 copies is likely to be too many for Sotomayor to sign, a staffer reassured the varsity that “most institutions order within the ranges of 400 and up.”
And before a scheduled visit to the law school on the University of California, Davis, for the 2018 commencement, the court staff pitched the varsity on signed copies of her books in reference to the event.
In an announcement, a Supreme Court spokesperson said that staff members work to follow judicial ethics guidance and that “at no time have attendees been required to purchase a book with a purpose to attend an event.”
“Schools have occasionally invited Justice Sotomayor to participate in a program during which they select a book for a complete school or a freshman class, and the Justice gives a book talk,” the statement said. “When she is invited to take part in a book program, Chambers staff recommends the variety of books based on the dimensions of the audience in order to not disappoint attendees who may anticipate books being available at an event, and they’ll put colleges or universities in contact with the Justice’s publisher when asked to accomplish that.”
A lure for money
Supreme Court justices insist that they can not and don’t take part in fundraising events. However the emails obtained by the AP show that the court’s definition of a fundraiser — an event that raises greater than it costs or where guests are asked for contributions — excludes much of the work that typically goes into persuading a wealthy donor to chop a check.
That’s given schools wide latitude to court wealthy patrons.
As an illustration, ahead of a 2017 event with Justice Clarence Thomas, officials at McLennan Community College in Texas worked with the outstanding conservative lawyer Ken Starr and his wife, Alice, to craft a guest list designed to reward school patrons and incentivize future contributions. In an interview, Starr’s widow called it “friendraising.”
In an email planning the event, the manager director of the school’s foundation wrote that she had thoughts about whom to ask “mainly because they’re wealthy conservative Catholics who would align with Clarence Thomas and who haven’t previously given.”
Thomas isn’t the just one whose status as a justice has been leveraged by schools desirous to capitalize with donors. Before Justice Elena Kagan visited the University of Colorado’s law school, one official suggested a “larger donor to staff ratio” for a 2019 dinner together with her, emails show. One other event organizer said the organizer was “open to suggestions about which VIP donors to cultivate relationships with.” A college spokesperson said the attendees weren’t asked for any donations connected to the event.
Clemson University in South Carolina hosted Sotomayor for a 2017 session with students and for a non-public luncheon.
One official said it was hoped the events, which included donors, would “ultimately generate resources” for the university’s Humanities Advancement Board, which played a lead organizing role. As university officials devised a guest list, an alumni relations official wrote: “If you say $1M donors, please you should definitely include our corporate donors at that level, too.”
A university spokesman said the event with Sotomayor was not a fundraiser.
In an announcement, a court spokesperson said it “routinely asks event organizers to verify that an event at which a Justice will speak will not be a fundraiser, and it provides a definition of ‘fundraiser’ with a purpose to avoid misunderstandings.” The spokesperson said justices have occasionally declined to attend events even after being told expressly that they weren’t fundraisers.
Political commingling
Visits to universities are promoted as academic in nature, but in addition they have facilitated encounters between justices and elected officials.
Months after he was seated on the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch attended an event on the University of Kentucky with then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, hosted by a middle to check the judiciary named after considered one of McConnell’s closest friends, a former federal judge.
In 2020, after teaching a weeklong course on the University of Florida’s law school, Thomas prolonged his stay within the state to attend a gathering of the regional branch of the Federalist Society, where he was introduced with effusive praise by Gov. Ron DeSantis, with whom he also had a non-public dinner.
Thomas also attended a non-public dinner during a visit to the University of Texas at Tyler that was sponsored by a bunch of donors to then-Rep. Louie Gohmert. Six years later, Gohmert would spearhead a lawsuit that sought to empower Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the final result of the 2020 presidential election that Donald Trump lost.
A court spokesperson said: “Justices exercise caution in attending events that is likely to be described as political in nature, following guidance within the Code of Conduct which cautions judges against engaging in political activity. Merely attending an event where an elected official may additionally be in attendance — akin to several of the events described in your email — doesn’t necessarily render the event impermissibly political in nature.”
No ethics code
A few of the conduct revealed by the AP likely would run afoul of ethics rules that cover officials in other branches of presidency in addition to lower federal court judges.
Lower court judges, for example, are generally barred from engaging in fundraising, political activity and “lending the prestige of judicial office” to advance a judge’s own “private interests.” Supreme Court justices are asked only to stick to what Chief Justice John Roberts referred to in April as a set of foundational “ethics principles and practices.”
The data on this review comes at a time of plummeting confidence within the court, brought on partially by a succession of reports media revelations about members of the court, including reports by ProPublica that Thomas repeatedly accepted luxury vacations, including a $500,000 trip to Indonesia in 2019, and sold property to and accepted school tuition for a nephew from Harlan Crow, a billionaire businessman, Republican donor and longtime friend.
After the AP stories were published, Sen. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said: “If they only establish the fundamental standards of each other branch of presidency, it might give us far more confidence of their integrity.”
