Washington
Ketanji Brown Jackson reports $2 million in income last year for her memoir, ‘Lovely One’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson received more than $2 million last year for her best-selling memoir, “Lovely One,” according to her annual financial disclosure, released Tuesday.
Jackson’s outside income exceeded that of her court colleagues combined, the reports showed. Justice Neil Gorsuch reported $250,000 for the book he published last year, while Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she received $134,000 in royalties and an advance for a new book due out next year.
The annual reports paint a partial picture of the justices’ finances, as they are not required to reveal the value of their homes or, for those who are married, their spouses’ salary. Their investments also are reported in ranges.
The justices earn a salary of $303,600 for their work on the court, except for Chief Justice John Roberts, who is paid $317,500.
“Lovely One” was published by Random House in September and briefly topped the New York Times bestseller list. Jackson, the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court, signed the contract soon after taking her seat in 2022 and last year reported receiving a nearly $900,000 advance. She undertook an extensive speaking tour to promote the book and reported 15 paid trips across the country last summer and fall.
The nearly $3 million she has received so far rivals the contract Sotomayor signed for her memoir, “My Beloved World,” first published in 2013. Sotomayor, who also has written several children’s books, is writing a new one called “Just Shine! How to Be a Better You” inspired by her late mother, People magazine has reported.
Gorsuch’s latest book, “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” was published in August by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh also have book deals.
Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch reported a bit more than $30,000 each for one- or two-week law school teaching gigs. Barrett and Kavanaugh taught at the University of Notre Dame’s law school in South Bend, Indiana. Each has a child attending college there and Barrett was on the law school faculty before becoming a judge. Gorsuch taught in George Mason University’s summer law program in Porto, Portugal.
Roberts reported teaching a two-week course in Galway, Ireland in July. He said he wasn’t paid until February. His compensation will be on the report that’s released a year from now.
The only justice whose report was not available Tuesday is Samuel Alito, who received an extension for up to 90 days, as he does most years.
Tennessee
NAACP files intent to sue Elon Musk’s xAI company over supercomputer air pollution
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The NAACP filed an intent to sue Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI on Tuesday over concerns about air pollution generated by a supercomputer located near predominantly Black communities.
The xAI data center began operating gas turbines last year, emitting air pollution, without first applying for a permit under an exemption that allowed them to do so for 364 days. The permit application now being considered by the Shelby County Health Department calls for the use of 15 turbines, though the Southern Environmental Law Center says there are as many as 35 turbines located at the sprawling facility.
Musk’s xAI said the turbines will be equipped with technology to reduce emissions — and that it’s already boosting the city’s economy by investing billions of dollars in the supercomputer facility, paying millions in local taxes and creating hundreds of jobs. The company also is spending $35 million to build a power substation and $80 million to build a water recycling plant to the support Memphis, Light, Gas and Water, the local utility.
But the Southern Environmental Law Center, among others, says the supercomputer is stressing the power grid, and that the gas-powered turbines emit smog and carbon dioxide, pollutants that cause lung irritation such as nitrogen oxides, and the carcinogen formaldehyde, experts say.
The chamber of commerce in Memphis made a surprise announcement in June 2024 that xAI planned to build a supercomputer in the city. The data center quickly set up shop in an industrial park south Memphis, near factories and a gas-powered plant operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The SELC has claimed the use of the turbines violates the Clean Air Act and notes that residents who live near the xAI facility already face cancer risks at four times the national average. The group also has sent a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Hawaii
Lawsuit asks court to halt Haiku Stairs demolition, citing agency flip-flop
An O?ahu court is being asked to reverse a decision made by the State Historic Preservation Division backing plans by the City and County of Honolulu to demolish the Ha?iku Stairs.
The suit was filed in district court Thursday by the Friends of Ha?iku Stairs – a nonprofit that has lobbied for retaining all or part of the 50-year-old mountain path that rises more than 2,000 feet offering climbers spectacular views of the Windward Coast.
The city has been trying to dismantle the structure since 2021, but requires the agreement of the State Historic Preservation Division, a branch of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, under Hawai?i statutes.
The filing asks the court to permanently halt the demolition, alleging that SHPD failed to require the city to “conduct adequate historic and archaeological surveys of the full project area,” and allowed the city to reject “a viable alternative to preserve the Stairs.”
SHPD had previously expressed a preference for preserving and restoring the structure in a 2019 letter to the city, according to the filing.
“SHPD’s preferred alternative would be to keep the Ha?iku Stairs and … and restore the damaged section of the stairs,” the letter read.
But on April 9, SHPD wrote to the city’s Department of Design and Construction that the demolition could proceed. The Friends of Ha?iku Stairs argue that SHPD’s April letter was deficient because it didn’t adequately explain why it abandoned its previous support for preservation.
“We just think that SHPD’s rapid shift from preservation to demolition without explaining or doing any of the steps necessary under state law was fundamentally wrong and voids the whole process,” Justin Scorza, vice president of the Friends of Ha?iku Stairs, said on Monday.
The group had first appealed the letter April 12 with the Hawai?i Historic Places Review Board, but the board lacked a quorum to rule on the legality of the letter, Scorza said.
DLNR spokesman Dan Dennison said Monday he would not comment on pending litigation.
City spokesman Ian Scheuring said the city was confident the Circuit Court does not have jurisdiction over the case and expected the lawsuit to be dismissed.
Demolition Already On Hold Pending Appeal
The lawsuit is the latest installment in the legal maneuvering around Honolulu’’s efforts to demolish the stairs citing safety concerns, liability and security costs.
Built during World War II as part of a top-secret naval radio project, the nearly 4,000 stairs remained an off-limits destination for hikers despite being closed in 1987.
In 2019, former Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell had briefly floated the idea that the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation take over the stairs and develop a managed access plan, including addressing traffic jams at the trail’s residential access point.
But an environmental impact statement in 2020 by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply recommended demolishing the stairs, and the formal decision was made by the Honolulu City Council and Mayor Rick Blangiardi in September 2021.
The demolition was meant to take six months and cost $2.6 million but in August 2023 Friends of Ha?iku Stairs asked a court to halt the plan, arguing that the Board of Water Supplies environmental impact statement was out of date.
Friends of Ha?iku Stairs lost that decision, but nevertheless, a temporary injunction was placed on the project in June last year, pending a decision by the Intermediate Court of Appeals on whether the lower court erred in its finding.
Honolulu filed for an expedited appeal decision in February, saying it had spent nearly $2 million on police overtime to guard the steps from June to December last year. Over 120 arrests for trespass were made during that time, according to the city.
Although there have been no reported deaths on the stairs, emergency workers rescued nearly 200 hikers from the trail from 2010 to 2022, the city said.
Wisconsin
State high court strikes down GOP law weakening AG’s power
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A unanimous Wisconsin’s Supreme Court sided with the Democratic state attorney general Tuesday in a long-running battle over a law passed by Republicans who wanted to weaken the office in a lame duck legislative session more than six years ago.
The court ruled 7-0 that requiring the attorney general to get permission from a Republican-controlled legislative committee to settle certain civil lawsuits was unconstitutional. The law is a separation of powers violation, the court said.
The Republican-controlled Legislature convened a session in December 2018 after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul defeated Republican incumbents. The laws signed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker on his way out the door weakened powers of both offices.
At issue in the case decided Tuesday was the attorney general’s power to settle civil lawsuits involving environmental and consumer protection cases as well as cases involving the governor’s office and executive branch. The new law required the Legislature’s budget committee, which is controlled by Republicans, to sign off on those settlements.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2020, when controlled by conservatives, upheld all of the lame duck laws and ruled they did not violate the separation of powers principle. But the ruling left the door open to future challenges on how the laws are applied.
Kaul sued that year, arguing that having to seek approval for those lawsuit settlements violates the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches. The Legislature argued that lawmakers have an interest in overseeing the settlement of lawsuits and that the court’s earlier ruling saying there was no separation of powers violation should stand.
Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford, who won election to the state Supreme Court in April and will be joining the court in August, ruled in favor of Kaul in 2022 saying the law was unconstitutional. A state appeals court overturned her ruling December, saying there was no separation of powers violation because both the executive and legislative branches of government share the powers in question.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Legislature can not “assume for itself the power to execute a law it wrote.”
There is no constitutional justification for requiring the Legislature’s budget committee to sign off on court settlements at issue in the case, Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote for the court.
Kaul and Republican legislative leaders who defended the law had no immediate comment Tuesday on the ruling.
Ketanji Brown Jackson reports $2 million in income last year for her memoir, ‘Lovely One’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson received more than $2 million last year for her best-selling memoir, “Lovely One,” according to her annual financial disclosure, released Tuesday.
Jackson’s outside income exceeded that of her court colleagues combined, the reports showed. Justice Neil Gorsuch reported $250,000 for the book he published last year, while Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she received $134,000 in royalties and an advance for a new book due out next year.
The annual reports paint a partial picture of the justices’ finances, as they are not required to reveal the value of their homes or, for those who are married, their spouses’ salary. Their investments also are reported in ranges.
The justices earn a salary of $303,600 for their work on the court, except for Chief Justice John Roberts, who is paid $317,500.
“Lovely One” was published by Random House in September and briefly topped the New York Times bestseller list. Jackson, the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court, signed the contract soon after taking her seat in 2022 and last year reported receiving a nearly $900,000 advance. She undertook an extensive speaking tour to promote the book and reported 15 paid trips across the country last summer and fall.
The nearly $3 million she has received so far rivals the contract Sotomayor signed for her memoir, “My Beloved World,” first published in 2013. Sotomayor, who also has written several children’s books, is writing a new one called “Just Shine! How to Be a Better You” inspired by her late mother, People magazine has reported.
Gorsuch’s latest book, “Over Ruled: The Human Toll of Too Much Law,” was published in August by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh also have book deals.
Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch reported a bit more than $30,000 each for one- or two-week law school teaching gigs. Barrett and Kavanaugh taught at the University of Notre Dame’s law school in South Bend, Indiana. Each has a child attending college there and Barrett was on the law school faculty before becoming a judge. Gorsuch taught in George Mason University’s summer law program in Porto, Portugal.
Roberts reported teaching a two-week course in Galway, Ireland in July. He said he wasn’t paid until February. His compensation will be on the report that’s released a year from now.
The only justice whose report was not available Tuesday is Samuel Alito, who received an extension for up to 90 days, as he does most years.
Tennessee
NAACP files intent to sue Elon Musk’s xAI company over supercomputer air pollution
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The NAACP filed an intent to sue Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI on Tuesday over concerns about air pollution generated by a supercomputer located near predominantly Black communities.
The xAI data center began operating gas turbines last year, emitting air pollution, without first applying for a permit under an exemption that allowed them to do so for 364 days. The permit application now being considered by the Shelby County Health Department calls for the use of 15 turbines, though the Southern Environmental Law Center says there are as many as 35 turbines located at the sprawling facility.
Musk’s xAI said the turbines will be equipped with technology to reduce emissions — and that it’s already boosting the city’s economy by investing billions of dollars in the supercomputer facility, paying millions in local taxes and creating hundreds of jobs. The company also is spending $35 million to build a power substation and $80 million to build a water recycling plant to the support Memphis, Light, Gas and Water, the local utility.
But the Southern Environmental Law Center, among others, says the supercomputer is stressing the power grid, and that the gas-powered turbines emit smog and carbon dioxide, pollutants that cause lung irritation such as nitrogen oxides, and the carcinogen formaldehyde, experts say.
The chamber of commerce in Memphis made a surprise announcement in June 2024 that xAI planned to build a supercomputer in the city. The data center quickly set up shop in an industrial park south Memphis, near factories and a gas-powered plant operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The SELC has claimed the use of the turbines violates the Clean Air Act and notes that residents who live near the xAI facility already face cancer risks at four times the national average. The group also has sent a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Hawaii
Lawsuit asks court to halt Haiku Stairs demolition, citing agency flip-flop
An O?ahu court is being asked to reverse a decision made by the State Historic Preservation Division backing plans by the City and County of Honolulu to demolish the Ha?iku Stairs.
The suit was filed in district court Thursday by the Friends of Ha?iku Stairs – a nonprofit that has lobbied for retaining all or part of the 50-year-old mountain path that rises more than 2,000 feet offering climbers spectacular views of the Windward Coast.
The city has been trying to dismantle the structure since 2021, but requires the agreement of the State Historic Preservation Division, a branch of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, under Hawai?i statutes.
The filing asks the court to permanently halt the demolition, alleging that SHPD failed to require the city to “conduct adequate historic and archaeological surveys of the full project area,” and allowed the city to reject “a viable alternative to preserve the Stairs.”
SHPD had previously expressed a preference for preserving and restoring the structure in a 2019 letter to the city, according to the filing.
“SHPD’s preferred alternative would be to keep the Ha?iku Stairs and … and restore the damaged section of the stairs,” the letter read.
But on April 9, SHPD wrote to the city’s Department of Design and Construction that the demolition could proceed. The Friends of Ha?iku Stairs argue that SHPD’s April letter was deficient because it didn’t adequately explain why it abandoned its previous support for preservation.
“We just think that SHPD’s rapid shift from preservation to demolition without explaining or doing any of the steps necessary under state law was fundamentally wrong and voids the whole process,” Justin Scorza, vice president of the Friends of Ha?iku Stairs, said on Monday.
The group had first appealed the letter April 12 with the Hawai?i Historic Places Review Board, but the board lacked a quorum to rule on the legality of the letter, Scorza said.
DLNR spokesman Dan Dennison said Monday he would not comment on pending litigation.
City spokesman Ian Scheuring said the city was confident the Circuit Court does not have jurisdiction over the case and expected the lawsuit to be dismissed.
Demolition Already On Hold Pending Appeal
The lawsuit is the latest installment in the legal maneuvering around Honolulu’’s efforts to demolish the stairs citing safety concerns, liability and security costs.
Built during World War II as part of a top-secret naval radio project, the nearly 4,000 stairs remained an off-limits destination for hikers despite being closed in 1987.
In 2019, former Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell had briefly floated the idea that the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation take over the stairs and develop a managed access plan, including addressing traffic jams at the trail’s residential access point.
But an environmental impact statement in 2020 by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply recommended demolishing the stairs, and the formal decision was made by the Honolulu City Council and Mayor Rick Blangiardi in September 2021.
The demolition was meant to take six months and cost $2.6 million but in August 2023 Friends of Ha?iku Stairs asked a court to halt the plan, arguing that the Board of Water Supplies environmental impact statement was out of date.
Friends of Ha?iku Stairs lost that decision, but nevertheless, a temporary injunction was placed on the project in June last year, pending a decision by the Intermediate Court of Appeals on whether the lower court erred in its finding.
Honolulu filed for an expedited appeal decision in February, saying it had spent nearly $2 million on police overtime to guard the steps from June to December last year. Over 120 arrests for trespass were made during that time, according to the city.
Although there have been no reported deaths on the stairs, emergency workers rescued nearly 200 hikers from the trail from 2010 to 2022, the city said.
Wisconsin
State high court strikes down GOP law weakening AG’s power
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A unanimous Wisconsin’s Supreme Court sided with the Democratic state attorney general Tuesday in a long-running battle over a law passed by Republicans who wanted to weaken the office in a lame duck legislative session more than six years ago.
The court ruled 7-0 that requiring the attorney general to get permission from a Republican-controlled legislative committee to settle certain civil lawsuits was unconstitutional. The law is a separation of powers violation, the court said.
The Republican-controlled Legislature convened a session in December 2018 after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul defeated Republican incumbents. The laws signed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker on his way out the door weakened powers of both offices.
At issue in the case decided Tuesday was the attorney general’s power to settle civil lawsuits involving environmental and consumer protection cases as well as cases involving the governor’s office and executive branch. The new law required the Legislature’s budget committee, which is controlled by Republicans, to sign off on those settlements.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2020, when controlled by conservatives, upheld all of the lame duck laws and ruled they did not violate the separation of powers principle. But the ruling left the door open to future challenges on how the laws are applied.
Kaul sued that year, arguing that having to seek approval for those lawsuit settlements violates the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches. The Legislature argued that lawmakers have an interest in overseeing the settlement of lawsuits and that the court’s earlier ruling saying there was no separation of powers violation should stand.
Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford, who won election to the state Supreme Court in April and will be joining the court in August, ruled in favor of Kaul in 2022 saying the law was unconstitutional. A state appeals court overturned her ruling December, saying there was no separation of powers violation because both the executive and legislative branches of government share the powers in question.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Legislature can not “assume for itself the power to execute a law it wrote.”
There is no constitutional justification for requiring the Legislature’s budget committee to sign off on court settlements at issue in the case, Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote for the court.
Kaul and Republican legislative leaders who defended the law had no immediate comment Tuesday on the ruling.
