A recently compiled report shows that Supreme Court justices get neither big bucks nor valuable gifts when they speak at public universities. But public and press access granted by the justices is idiosyncratic.
Two justices ? Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito ? have limited access to their appearances, even on occasion forbidding recording of their speeches for archival purposes.
The report by the non-partisan organization Fix the Court praised all the justices for going out of their way to speak at state universities, and not just the elite private schools that they and their law clerks have attended. The report found that roughly one-third of all the colleges and universities visited by the justices were public institutions.
Fix the Court found some slip-ups on disclosure of reimbursed travel expenses ? none of them major ? by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas. When Fix the Court pointed out the omissions, both justices said, through the court press office, that they would amend their disclosure forms.
For the most part, the travel and lodging expenses are routine. The justices travel commercial. Occasionally, a university owns a private plane that it sends to transport a justice to a place that is not easily accessible from Washington, D.C. But these flights are rare. Justice Alito even declined one such offer.
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