Justice Clarence Thomas delayed releasing his annual financial disclosure form on Wednesday after recent revelations cast scrutiny on his travel, gifts and real estate dealings with a conservative billionaire donor from Texas.
Like Justice Thomas, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. asked for a 90-day extension to file the forms, which detail gifts, investments and other financial holdings, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which handles the financial records and the database where they are publicly disclosed.
The financial disclosures, especially that of Justice Thomas, have drawn heightened interest after a series of reports raised questions about the level of transparency at the Supreme Court and the lack of an enforceable ethics code. The nature of Justice Thomas’s relationship with Harlan Crow, a Texas billionaire and longtime Republican donor, has elicited particular attention.
The disclosure forms for the other justices gave a glimpse of their lives outside the court, offering details of travel in 2022 and money earned from book deals.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the only one to report a gift, listed congratulatory flowers from Oprah Winfrey worth $1,200 and a dress and jacket valued at $6,580 from a Vogue magazine photo shoot.
Two justices supplemented their incomes through rental properties. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. rented out his vacation homes in Maine and Ireland, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor rented out her apartment in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan.
Justice Elena Kagan reported income from a parking space that she rents out in Washington, D.C. She estimated the spot to be worth $15,001 to $50,000.
Travel for legal conferences and teaching was also a recurring disclosure. In total, the justices reported 20 free or reimbursed trips, including several to Italy. Justices Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett traveled to Rome for conferences, and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch taught in Padua through George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School. Justice Sotomayor participated in a conference in Scotland.
Justice Sotomayor reported that she earned $149,000 in royalties from her children’s books, “Just Ask!” and “Turning Pages.”
Chief Justice Roberts included additional information about his wife, Jane Roberts, in his filing this year, saying that he had “clarified over prior year reports.” He listed her work as a legal recruiter for Macrae as “recoverable base salary and commission.”
The clarification comes after a former colleague of Mrs. Roberts questioned whether her legal recruiting work could pose potential ethical conflicts for the chief justice. The former colleague gave records to the Justice Department and Congress showing that Mrs. Roberts had received millions of dollars in commissions for placing lawyers at firms, including some that had business before the Supreme Court.
In response, a court spokeswoman said at the time that all the justices were “attentive to ethical constraints” and complied with financial disclosure laws.
Questions have swirled over the ethics practices of the justices, renewing pressure on the court to tighten its disclosure rules.
In recent months, ProPublica detailed how Mr. Crow had hosted Justice Thomas on luxury vacations aboard his superyacht, flown him on his private jet and paid private school tuition for the justice’s nephew. Mr. Crow also bought Justice Thomas’s childhood home, according to ProPublica, where the justice’s mother still lives. Justice Thomas did not include any of those dealings on his financial disclosures.
Justice Gorsuch did not disclose that the chief executive of a major law firm with frequent business before the court had bought a shared vacation property in Colorado, according to Politico. Experts said that did not violate disclosure rules, but they added that it underlined the need for strengthening the reporting requirements.
Democratic lawmakers in the Senate have pushed for greater accountability and oversight, including an ethics code for the court.
The Judiciary Committee has requested that Mr. Crow hand over information about perks he gave to Justice Thomas.
Mr. Crow initially declined. But on Monday, his lawyer, Michael D. Bopp, notified the panel’s chairman, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, that he “would welcome a discussion with your staff” even as he reiterated that he and his client “believe the committee lacks authority to conduct its investigation of Mr. Crow and Justice Thomas.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Durbin and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, both Democrats, fired back, issuing a statement that if Mr. Crow would not voluntarily turn over information about his financial ties to the justice, “all options are on the table moving forward.” Senator Ron Wyden, the chairman of the Finance Committee, warned that lawmakers may subpoena Mr. Crow.
