Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch has been recognized for writing lofty — sometimes lengthy — judicial opinions on the country’s biggest issues.
Look no further than the 46-page concurrence he wrote when the court in February struck down most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, with its meditations on executive power, constitutional doctrine and the nation’s founding.
This spring, however, Gorsuch is getting into a new type of writing: children’s literature. Taking a cue from other justices, Gorsuch will release his first children’s book in May — an illustrated storybook about America’s Founding Fathers, timed to the nation’s 250th birthday. During a Fox News appearance in November, he said that the book will bring “civic education to our children.”
What at first glance might seem odd — some of the smartest (and busiest) legal minds in the country writing books for kids — is actually close to becoming a majority opinion at the high court. Justice Sonia Sotomayor has published five books for younger audiences. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson released a young-adult version of her memoir, “Lovely One,” in January. Gorsuch has been plugging “Heroes of 1776: The Story of the Declaration of Independence” since November.
The trend is fueled by the justices’ growing status as political celebrities in a deeply divided country, according to publishing industry figures and students of the court. Their name recognition, particularly among people who share their ideological values, creates built-in audiences that publishers see as a safe bet.
“This Supreme Court is deeply divided on issues, and the public is more familiar with each justice than ever before because of social media,” Kathleen Schmidt, a publishing veteran who regularly writes about the industry, said in an email. “Publishers understand that audiences are invested.”
And the justices have a big incentive: They can make tens of thousands of dollars from diving into kid lit.
A children’s book that Sotomayor published in 2019 has sold nearly as many copies as her best-selling 2013 memoir, “My Beloved World.” Sotomayor received a $1.9 million advance for the memoir. Since then, she has exclusively published for young audiences.
The justice in her filings does not specify the amounts she received for each title, but she has reported receiving more than $870,000 in total in advances and royalties from 2017 to 2024, a period in which she published three children’s books and one for young adults, all put out by Penguin Random House.
In September, Sotomayor released her most recent children’s book, “Just Shine! How to Be a Better You” — a tribute to her mother, with an audiobook version narrated by the Cuban American singer Gloria Estefan. (The book topped the New York Times bestseller list in the children’s picture book category.)
The justice and her colleagues have not yet released their financial disclosures for 2025, so it’s unclear how much this latest book contributed to her overall earnings.
Sotomayor, like the other Supreme Court justices named in this article, did not respond to requests for comment.
Publishing presents a unique opportunity for the justices. Court ethics rules cap outside income at just over $30,000, but book royalties are an exception, with no income limits. Recently justices have begun to see multimillion-dollar advances that well eclipse their $306,600 salary, according to financial disclosures.
The deals mostly consist of adult nonfiction titles, such as memoirs and reflections about the law. While children’s books are not as lucrative, they require less work to produce and can sell well when the author is a public figure with a marketable name, experts say.
Supreme Court justices’ foray into the world of children’s literature mirrors a boom in which public figures — celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, former U.S. presidents like Barack Obama, and even Kash Patel (before he became FBI director) — have flooded shelves with books bearing their names, images and stories.
That has crowded out books by authors with more experience writing children’s literature, said Schmidt.
“Public figure/celebrity children’s books make it harder for non-celebrity authors to publish children’s books,” she said. “When publishers know a big name can be attached to these books, they (rightly) assume they will sell well.”
Justices today have that kind of name recognition, as they develop their personal brands through TV appearances, speaking events and big book deals.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, for example, received a nearly $3 million advance for “Lovely One,” which was published two years after she joined the court. Jackson was nominated for a Grammy for her audiobook reading of the autobiography. She did not win, but she went to the awards ceremony in February.
Part of “my job is public outreach and education,” the justice said during an appearance on the talk show “The View,” responding to criticism of her attendance at the awards show. “When the justices are on recess — which is what we are doing right now — we really have an opportunity to go out into the community in various different ways.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett received a reported $2 million for “Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution,” an exploration of her judicial philosophy that came out in September.
Supreme Court justices have always published books, but only in recent years has it become a lucrative side gig, said Gabe Roth, executive director of the ethics watchdog group Fix the Court. Justices like Chief Justice William Rehnquist published books, but they were typically for legal audiences and didn’t command the six- or seven-figure advances that justices get now, he said.
That began to change as justices became recognizable public figures and found an eager audience in the segment of the population most focused on politics and public affairs, a segment that also buys a lot of books.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who retired from the court in 2006, earned about $143,000 in advances and royalties for her 2002 memoir, “Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest,” according to news reports at the time.
She was the first justice to publish a children’s book. “Chico,” a picture book about her childhood pony, was published in 2005.
But it was Justice Clarence Thomas who “broke the mold” when he released his autobiography in 2007, Roth said. He received a $1.5 million advance, which at the time was the most for a sitting member of the court.
Lynn Chu, who represented Thomas in the deal, said his book had obvious potential, and he had already written a “substantial” draft to show to publishers.
“We found him to be an energetic and interesting writer with a great story, as well as (obviously) an important American figure with a large potential audience for book sales,” Chu said in an email.
The book deals, along with the TV and speaking appearances that come with them, have played a role in the political celebrity of the justices, argues Suzanna Sherry, a law professor at Vanderbilt University.
In 2020, Sherry published a paper arguing that justices increasingly seek celebrity status through their books, public appearances and even legal opinions. Growing political polarization has also fueled the “personality cult” of individual justices, as they are seen as “star players on their respective political teams,” Sherry wrote.
“It’s personal publicity rather than court publicity,” she said in an interview. “So they are now independent contractors competing for business with each other.”
Children’s books add another opportunity for the justices to burnish their images, Sherry said. “Children’s books are just easier to write.”
Each of Sotomayor’s books has sold tens of thousands of copies, according to data from Circana Bookscan. But her 2019 “Just Ask!: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You,” about children with diabetes, was a blockbuster. Since its release, it has sold close to 290,000 copies, according to Bookscan — nearly as many as Sotomayor’s memoir has sold over two editions.
“Just Ask!” was also adapted into a play, which Sotomayor helped direct. She received $2,225 for the adaptation rights.
How much Gorsuch received in advance for his children’s book, or how much Jackson received for the young-adult version of her autobiography, is unknown. The justices are expected to release their disclosures in June.
Gorsuch wrote “Heroes of 1776” with Janie Nitze, one of his former law clerks. The pair also co-wrote the 2024 nonfiction book “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” which argues thatsociety has been harmed by having too many laws. Gorsuch has reported $750,000 in royalties from HarperCollins, which published that book and is also publishing “Heroes.”
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