
The Scam of Book Sales
The Left has gone after members of the U.S. Supreme Court on drummed up ethics charges. Whether the Justices have violated any ethics rules (which they have all denied in specificity as to their filings and their actions) is in the eye of the beholder. What we want to explore is how people in public office make significant income from book sale advances and then book sales. The issue recently exploded because of an Associated Press (AP) story that focused on the left leaning Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The big issue regarding Justice Sotomayor was how she milked sales through her speeches. Instead of receiving speaking fees at her favorite “nonprofit” or university, the speech sponsor would buy hundreds of her books to be distributed to the guests at the events. The left-of-center press actually picked up this story. The conflict’s focus delineated by the AP is that Sotomayor used her Supreme Court staff to arrange the sales. The AP pointed out that this use of staff is illegal (unethical) for people in Congress or the Executive Branch. What the AP does not point out is that Congressional members just kick this function to their campaign committees.… Read More