NY Times: “One rainy day in April 2019, my phone buzzed and the caller ID lit up with“Supreme Court.” I stared at the two words for a moment. Was I in trouble?
Then I remembered.
A few months earlier, I’d sent Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor a letter inviting her to speak at the Mississippi Book Festival, which runs every August. Our offer was the same as it had been for other authors: a $250 stipend, a ride to and from the airport and a large, appreciative audience. In addition, we would purchase 1,500 copies of Sotomayor’s booksto give to students. Could the justice please travel to Jackson, Miss., to talk to kids for two days? In the hottest time of the year?
My rainy-day call was a response from her assistant, Anh Le.
I have lately been double-checking my communications with Le in light of the Associated Press report saying Sotomayor’s staff “has often prodded public institutions that have hosted the justice to buy her memoir or children’s books, works that have earned her at least $3.7 million since she joined the court in 2009.”Like many Americans, I’m appalled by reports of private jets, yachts, fishing trips and other lavish gifts accepted by some of our Supreme Court justices. I went back to my emails and notes and wondered: Had I “bribed” Justice Sotomayor to come to Mississippi?”