how much more he will align with anthony kennedy and how much he will align more middle to the right are very open questions. >> host: does very, very strong friendships on the courts, relationships? >> guest: woe make sure those relationships are good. he understands that is part of being chief, is being an administrator and trying to. trying to make sure his colleagues treated fairly in processes of the court and assignments. i think he put as lot of attention to, to his, those relationships. a few years ago in indiana, i know you're a native, i covered a 7th circuit legal conference and he was the opening act for elena kagan. she was going to be speaking. and he gave some remarks. and now she is very liberal and he, he was great. he was only favorable. he had his usual sense of

timing. she gets up and she says, i'm supposed to follow that? so he, he says the right thing and, i would recommend, people look at some of his rulings in the last term, for signs where he might not be exactly as he has been pigeonholed in, hard-right conservative. look at june 2012 ruling in the obama health care law case. >> host: jodi, venice, california, we have a minute left. >> caller: okay, you say the court is insular and almost shy yet a few of justices attend political strategy planning conventions and fund-raising events. to me on the outside that looks awful. >> host: can you name a instance where you know about this. >> caller: clarence thomas and i believe scalia went to a koch brothers planning strategy

convention in palm springs. samuel alito was seen at a republican political fund-raiser. there is even footage of it. and reporters tried to stop him as he was leaving to talk to him and he just was scooted down the back -- >> host: any liberal justices attend these type of meetings? >> caller: honestly not that know of. i don't want this to appear this is partisan question. i just wonder if there is going to be any move in the court to, you know, at least use the same rules for ethics that, are, the district court judges. >> host: thank you, ma'am. >> guest: this comes from time to time. the justices actually are not supposed to attend fund raisers. that is part of their own internal rules. the caller hit on something having to do with exthicks rules for -- ethics rules of government. supreme court justices operate on their own rules. they don't follow all the rules

lower court justices do but effectively follow them. their their own masters. they don't usually attend fund-raisers. they try not to. there are instances conferences where political strategizing going on but it was not part of what they were doing. but that, that kind of controversy comes up through the years and, they, wisely try to avoid sending those signals because again, what i said was, that all they have got is their integrity. if people doubt their integrity they will doubt the have lid of those rulings. >> host: did samuel alito attend a political fund-raiser? >> guest: what she is referring to, might be referring to federalist society meetings they have spoken at and fund-raising component. the koch brothers thing, if i remember right, the caller might have recently looked back to those clips, is that, these justices were not in on any kind of political strategizing. they were offered like keynote

speakers forelarger conferences. >> host: can the justices make outside income? >> guest: do they make outside income? their books, their books, okay, sonia sotomayor made at least three million dollars off of her book. justice scalia has made, tens of thousands, if not, hundreds of thousands off of all his books that he does in coordination with west publishing which is part of thomson reuters. so maybe i'm sort of getting rich through scalia? i don't think so. or scalia is getting rich through thomson reuters. i don't know. they can make unlimited income off of their books. and, many of them are authors. but then they have a certain limit on honoraria they can take for speaking. it is 25,000 roughly. >> host: joan biskupic. joan biskupic.com is the website. biographies on justices scalia, sotomayor and o'connor. . .