What is the salary of a US Supreme Court justice?

The US Supreme Court is the most important legal body in the country. At present, it has nine justices that rule upon constitutional rights, meaning that placing important ideological allies into the positions can be politically canny.

It has been suggested that the court currently has a conservative viewpoint, giving administrations other avenues to get their agenda across outside of Congress. Recent rulings from the court have put the right to an abortion back in the hands of states as well as restricting the power of the Envrionmental Protection Agency (EPA), causing consternation in an electorate that voted against conservative ideas at the ballot box in 2020.

What has been less divisive is the pay of the justices themselves. As of 2022, the salary of a US Supreme Court Justice is $274,200 per year. The Chief Justice of the United States, who is the head of the Supreme Court, receives a slightly higher salary of $286,700 per year.

These salaries are set by Congress and are subject to periodic adjustments to account for inflation and in the last 200 years their pay has stayed relatively flat measured against this.

The scandal engulfing the Supreme Court

Since the release of the abortion-banning ruling last year, the Supreme Court and its members have been under enhanced scrutiny in their dealings.

In recent weeks, reports by ProPublica revealed undisclosed gifts received by Chief Justice Clarence Thomas from a Texas real estate billionaire. The initial report was followed by additional revelations about controversial non-disclosures made by Thomas on his financial declaration forms as well as paid tuition for one of his children. All this totalled payments into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This has raised concerns about the ethical standards that Supreme Court Justices are expected to uphold, particularly since they do not have a formal ethics code and instead rely on self-enforcement. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Democrat Dick Durbin, commented that, “the highest court in the country should not have the lowest ethical standards, especially when compared to other federal judges.”

Chief Justice Thomas is under no obligation to resign and with little-to-no safeguarding in place is unlikely to be forced out. Republicans will be hoping this is the case lest President Joe Biden have the opportunity to propose a liberal judge in his place.