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Failed Writer's Journey: You Can No Longer Sue Penguin Random House [1]

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Date: 2025-05-23

The title is a bit misleading, as the person in question did sue Penguin Random House (why, when they merged, did they not name themselves Random Penguin Houses?) but they could not get a full appeal. Why? Literary corruption!

Okay, more dramatic than it probably deserves, but five of the Supreme Court Justices recused themselves from the case, leaving no quorum. That meant that, by statute, the lower court rulings had to stand. What is interesting to me is how this demonstrates the way our system is casually corrupt and top heavy.

Penguin Random House likely mainly bought books from the Justices in order to get best sellers. A lot of publishing is driven by the idea that it is better to have one or two massive hits to pay for all the rest than it is to spend the time and effort to learn how to get a hundred mid-sellers and thrive on those. And Justices indisputably have a large platform. From a business perspective, one can see how it makes sense. It is also corrupt as all get out.

Now, I doubt that the Penguin random House people thought to themselves “ah hah! now we own five justices!” That is not how modern corruption works. But I am certain that they are happy to have a good working relationship with five Justices, and certainly happy that their employees get face time with five of the most powerful people in the country. It is an advantage that, say, the person suing Penguin Random House most certainly did not have. But, you say, they recused themselves! How could that help Penguin Random House?

Well, in this case, it helped quite a bit. The lower court rulings were in Penguin Random House’s favor. Letting those rulings stand means that Penguin Random House wins (I have no opinion on the merit of the case, though I will say plagiarism cases, such as this one, are generally hard to make). Okay, but what if Penguin Random House needed those five justices? I am pretty certain, then, that at least some of them would not have recused. Gorsuch, Alito, Roberts have all had recent ethics issues where they were clearly not abiding by the same rules that lower court justices must. And since the Supreme Court answers to no one, they can get away with it. And likely would have had they been needed to support Penguin Random House.

Now, again, I am not saying that anyone on either side has this clear an understanding. But it is indisputable that Penguin Random House potentially has the ear of a majority of the Supreme Court Justices in a way that the people across the court from them likely do not. It is insane that this is allowed, frankly. Yes, they recused. This time. But there is no guarantee that will always happen, and given how conservative the circuit courts are, and thus how subservient to business interests, odds are in Penguin Random House’s favor to begin with. They can probably live with recusals. Either way, it seems clear that the law leans a little bit on Penguin Random House’s side. Or at least no one can say for certain that it does not.

This is small potatoes, obviously, to Trump’s Air Force Bribe or the bribery he took in the form of his crypto dinner, or Menendez’s gold bars. But frankly, it does show easy it is for small corruptions, once accepted, can crack the door for larger corruptions. Supreme Court Justices should be above reproach, and they clearly are not.

Weekly Word Count

20 pages. The first act of the script version of the abortion thriller is done. For those who did not see last time, I am, on advice, writing the second version as a script, to more quickly get feedback on the potting, characters, etc. I do not imagine that it will then be just a matter of taking the dialog and throwing some descriptions up around it and then I have a book. Writing for the stage is a different beast than writing for the page. Playing with ways to bring events to life is certainly interesting. But I do hope that I can get feedback on the basics quickly and then use that to put together a final-ish book.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

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