George Mason's Scalia Law School is a generous employer for Supreme Court justices, records show


U.S. Supreme Court justices can legally only earn outside income from certain sources, primarily writing books, investments, and teaching. George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School has made a deliberate effort to hire conservative justices as teachers — and "strategic assets" it its campaign to make Scalia Law "a Yale or Harvard of conservative legal scholarship and influence," The New York Times reports, citing internal records it obtained through freedom of information requests and other documents.
George Mason, a public university in northern Virginia, established its law school in the late 1970s, and it always had a conservative bent, the Times reports. But it jump-started its campaign to become a central cog in the conservative judicial ecosystem when it changed its name after Scalia's death in 2016. The rebranding was "the result of a $30 million gift brokered by Leonard Leo, prime architect of a grand project then gathering force to transform the federal judiciary and further the legal imperatives of the right," the Times notes.
Internal documents show that the law school considered "building a strong relationship" with Scalia's replacement, Justice Neil Gorsuch, "a game-changing opportunity." Gorsuch was invited to help pick the Italian city where he would teach a two-week seminar during the summer of 2017 — they chose Padua — and by the winter of 2019, Justices Clarance Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh were also on Scalia Law faculty, the Times reports. Kavanaugh was flown to England for his teaching job. Thomas teaches at the Virginia campus.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"For teaching summer courses that generally ran for up to two weeks, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh each made salaries that approached the legal cap on certain outside income, roughly $30,000 in recent years," the Times reports. The university covered at least travel and housing for the justices and their families. "Some of this sounds like all-expenses-paid vacations, with a little teaching thrown in," Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia who specializes in legal ethics, tells the Times.
Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas also regularly used Supreme Court employees to prepare for their outside teaching, violating an advisory the justices say they voluntarily comply with, the Times reports. And a number of their co-professors have filed amicus briefs that the justices sometimes cite in oral arguments or opinions. Read more about this peek behind the Supreme Court's tightly drawn curtains at The New York Times.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Nepal chooses toddler as its new ‘living goddess’
Under the Radar Girls between two and four are typically chosen to live inside the temple as the Kumari – until puberty strikes
-
October 5 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailout
Talking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoff
Speed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies
-
YouTube to pay Trump $22M over Jan. 6 expulsion
Speed Read The president accused the company of censorship following the suspension of accounts post-Capitol riot
-
Oregon sues to stop Trump military deployment
Speed Read The president wants to send the National Guard into Portland