Recusals
— Justice Sotomayor failed to recuse in 12-965, Greenspan v. Random House, Inc, et al., despite her book publishing contracts with Knopf Doubleday, a subsidiary of Random House. (Random House merged with Penguin in July 2013). Missed recusal 4/15/13 (cert. denied); no action taken (FTC not founded until 11/12/14).
Source: Fix the Court
Ethical Lapses
— Hired unpaid interns in three-month stints over several years for various personal and Court-related tasks, before public criticism led to the end of the program; job description included “preparation of lunch and snacks for the Justice” and “run[ning] errands outside of the Courthouse (a driver’s license is a must).” (2010-2015)
— Did not recuse in 12-965, Greenspan, v. Random House (cert. denied), even though the respondent, her book publisher, had months before spent tens of thousands of dollars sending her around the country to promote her autobiography. (2013)
— Initially omitted from her 2016 disclosure six free or reimbursed trips she took that year, including one to the University of Rhode Island where the school paid for up to 11 rooms in one of the state’s fanciest hotels for her, her security detail and possibly some family friends; paid more than $1,000 for her round-trip flight; gave her a five-car motorcade from the airport; and ordered 125 copies of her autobiography to sell in the school bookstore. The five other free-trip omissions in 2016 were to the law schools of the University of Illinois, University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin and to Rutgers University and the University of Alaska. The disclosure was amended in 2021 and madepublic in 2022. (2016-2022)
— Omitted from that same disclosure a Sept. 2016 swing through Colorado, with speaking engagements at the Tenth Circuit Judicial Conference (Colo. Springs), Metropolitan State University (Denver) and University of Colorado Law School (Boulder). (2016)
— Used taxpayer-funded Court staff to perform various tasks for her literary career, including planning book events and prodding universities and libraries to buy more copies of her books. (c. 2017-19; revealed in 2023)
— Did not recuse in 19-560, Nicassio v. Viacom, et al. (cert. denied), where Penguin Random House was a party on the side of the respondents. By this point, Sotomayor had earned more than $3 million from her book contracts with PRH since becoming a justice. (2019-20)
— Initially Did not recuse from merits case 19-518, Colorado Department of State v. Michael Baca, et al., despite her close friendship with Polly Baca, one of the respondents. After some months, she did recuse. (2020)
— Did not recuse in 20-1227, Whitehead v. Netflix, et al. (cert. denied), where one of the respondents was “Unnamed Random House Publisher.” (2021)
Source: Fix the Court (PDF)