JMS, the Nixon impeachment tickets can be found through political dealers. They are a bit pricey $500-800. Many Presidential collectors add them to their collections. The second Trump impeachment was different in many ways. John Roberts refused to preside because he didn't believe it was his Constitutional place since Trump was no longer in office. I think the second trial came along fast and they turned to plastic useable passes - similar to what VIP guests may receive in their offices. It will be interesting to see what the Senate offices may do in the future with any future impeachment. I saw one dealer had a plastic pass from the Trump 2nd trial and was selling it for over $2500. Too rich for most blood. Without the Chief Justice presiding, I see the second trial as an unusual point of history, but not equal with others in history. Just my opinion.
@JBK said:
Another more obscure collectable is the card that Senators used to submit questions to the Chief Justice who presided over the trial.
I got one (unused, of course) from a senator's office during the Clinton impeachment.
I bought one from Trump's second impeachment on ebay for $40 or so - a huge bargain in my opinion. Now I just need one from the first trial.
I was browsing eBay and saw one or two of these. Both going for over $100.
When you requested impeachment tickets and/or these cards from Senators, did you ask during or after the trials? Do you send a letter simply requesting a ticket or is there other procedure? I want to know in the event another impeachment happens so I can try to get one.
JBK all good points. Yes, I am sure COVID had something to do with preparing or not preparing tickets during the 2nd trial. The plastic passes could be "cleaned" each time. I am trying to obtain an image of one of the plastic passes, but have not found it yet.
Yes I also have some of the "question cards." The senators fill them out to raise questions during the trial. The official ones used during the trial go to the National Archives for posterity. The unused tickets make it out to the market.
I always attempt to get impeachment tickets from my Senator's office. I have found the political junkie collectors on the staff of the various Senators, usually get them. I just have not had success in that way, but glad others have been able to get tickets that way. The Trump tickets from 2020 were limited in quantity and the trial was short, so the price on the secondary market was quite high.
The Andrew Johnson impeachment tickets were printed in various colors for the different days they were issued. The red tickets during the Clinton trial were red for the press. The public passes were yellow. The Trump passes were yellow and blue and maybe other colors, I am not sure. They did have a Senate seal that was printed as a monogram type image in the background.
For the political junkies: Though not an official impeachment pass, some are considering the on-going "Jan. 6th House Hearing" as the 3rd "unofficial" impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Here is one of the public passes for this on-going hearing.
When you requested impeachment tickets and/or these cards from Senators, did you ask during or after the trials? Do you send a letter simply requesting a ticket or is there other procedure? I want to know in the event another impeachment happens so I can try to get one.
After the trial is too late. I waited until a week or two prior to the start of the trial to start asking. If you ask too soon, the tickets aren't even on their radar yet.
@kga said:
For the political junkies: Though not an official impeachment pass, some are considering the on-going "Jan. 6th House Hearing" as the 3rd "unofficial" impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Here is one of the public passes for this on-going hearing.
That's amazing. I'll have to try for one of those.
When you requested impeachment tickets and/or these cards from Senators, did you ask during or after the trials? Do you send a letter simply requesting a ticket or is there other procedure? I want to know in the event another impeachment happens so I can try to get one.
After the trial is too late. I waited until a week or two prior to the start of the trial to start asking. If you ask too soon, the tickets aren't even on their radar yet.
Good to know. Thanks. I will send letter as soon as I know there is a trial or until a week or two prior.
Just for fun, here are a few of the "creative" fantasy Trump impeachment tickets created during the Trump impeachment frenzy. Beware that none of these ticket designs are authentic.
There was one on ebay at the time that I almost bought before they sold out (it might have been the first one above, patterned after the Clinton ticket, minus the signature on the front.)
The Pelosi-signed one is a little controversial since it might arguably be a forged official document (that wouldn't stop me from collecting it, but I personally wouldn't create it).
One thing I noted is how different all the legitimate tickets look. I might have thought the Clinton design might become the modern standard design, but obviously not.
I agree that the Pelosi ticket could be considered a forged document, however no Government office would go after this I am sure. This one was designed after the look of the authentic House pass signed by Carl Albert. It was official but never released as Nixon resigned before the impeachment could get underway. The House brings impeachment charges and the Senate hold a trial with the Senators deciding guilt or acquittal. As a historian, I believe the recent impeachments have started a very unhealthy trend in our government. Impeachments by nature are political, but the hyper-political back in forth in the House opens the future to many more impeachments. It is likely that Biden will be impeached by the new House after the election. Here we go again . . .
There is little reason to believe that once the new precedent was set, the other party won't respond in kind at some point.
Unfortunately, that will probably be the most significant legacy.
Makes me curious why in Andrew Johnson’s day they didn’t impeach any of the Presidents that shortly followed him. I am sure there was a lot of political division back then especially after the Civil War and during Reconstruction.
I have studied the subject a bit for educational presentations, etc. This list shows the Presidents who had impeachment moves against them from the House by various members. Most often the House Judiciary Committee did not take up the measure for consideration. History has always been contentious. Three official Presidential impeachments took place: Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump with one resignation Richard Nixon who would have been impeached and removed from office if he stayed.
My comment was cut at the end. If Nixon would have stayed for his impeachment, there would have been enough votes to remove him from office. He knew to resign.
@kga said:
Here is one more authentic Roberts I have in my collection. This is from the early Roberts' Court. It is only missing John Paul Stevens at the time.
I collect Presidential autographs, etc, and primarily focus on the Chief Justices of the United States in autographs. I have the authentic signatures of all Chief Justices from John Jay through John Roberts - less John Rutledge who is very rare and expensive. Have you seen this set of Chief Justice figures? It is a display piece of my Supreme Court collection.
A man named John Boos was the inspiration for my Lincoln Project. In his day he sent copies of the Gettysburg Address to notable people of his time and asked them to write a comment. I was able to get this piece for my collection. Chief Justice Charles Hughes added his comment. One of my favorites.
@kga said:
I collect Presidential autographs, etc, and primarily focus on the Chief Justices of the United States in autographs. I have the authentic signatures of all Chief Justices from John Jay through John Roberts - less John Rutledge who is very rare and expensive. Have you seen this set of Chief Justice figures? It is a display piece of my Supreme Court collection.
Amazing you have all the Chief Justices autographs minus one. Must had taken years to find and get all those. Quite amazing you got TWO John Roberts. Lucky you!
Never knew about John Rutledge’s rarity but now I am curious about him - is he rarer than Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh are going to be (assuming their signing habits don’t change). I know they are not Chief Justices but still will be interesting how they will compare in rarity.
That’s a really cool set of figures. I know they have those Supreme Court statues of the recent Justices (and maybe some older ones) that are exclusive to those that get the official Supreme Court newsletter. I don’t collect them (WAY too expensive) but they are interesting.
@kga said:
A man named John Boos was the inspiration for my Lincoln Project. In his day he sent copies of the Gettysburg Address to notable people of his time and asked them to write a comment. I was able to get this piece for my collection. Chief Justice Charles Hughes added his comment. One of my favorites.
That is VERY neat! I love when I find cool historical tie ins like that. That might very well be a one of a kind as the only Gettysburg address signed by Charles Hughes.
JMS I decided long ago to just focus on obtaining the Chief Justices. I agree Barrett and Kavanaugh are modern rarities, along with John Roberts. In the Chief Justice relm of autographs John Rutledge is rare and expensive. I had a chance to pick up an authentic Rutledge one time for $2500, but passed because of the high money. I still have hopes one day to get him. I have every Presidential signature and all the Chief Justices but the one. It took a lifetime to get them. When I was working it was a way to invest for the future. Now I am retired and just enjoy the collections.
This is another favorite from my collection. Sorry it is not the best scan. Salmon P. Chase was quite full of himself and he liked to sign quotes for autograph seekers. The Chief Justice wrote: He was on a $10,000 bill. No this is only a small reproduction. The autograph quote is real and authentic.
A complete presidential collection is one I wished I had put together years ago before some got very expensive.
I have gotten 10 presidents myself (almost all as future or former president), with two being handwritten letters. I inherited a few others (19th century and also FDR) and purchased a few more.
@JBK said:
A complete presidential collection is one I wished I had put together years ago before some got very expensive.
I have gotten 10 presidents myself (almost all as future or former president), with two being handwritten letters. I inherited a few others (19th century and also FDR) and purchased a few more.
I only have three (FDR, Clinton and Obama) currently. Very sad I know but I only restarted collecting a year and a half ago. In my former collection I had at least 8 different Presidents (Eisenhower, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, W. Bush and Obama) at one time.
JBK, good for you. I have met 7 Presidents in person and obtained some autographs that way. I started collecting when I was young. It is fun collecting them. Good luck as you expand as you can. At one time I thought it was impossible. It was part of life's journey.
@kga said:
JBK, good for you. I have met 7 Presidents in person and obtained some autographs that way. I started collecting when I was young. It is fun collecting them. Good luck as you expand as you can. At one time I thought it was impossible. It was part of life's journey.
Curious which 7 you met?
Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and W. Bush is my guess.
@kga said:
JBK, good for you. I have met 7 Presidents in person and obtained some autographs that way. I started collecting when I was young. It is fun collecting them. Good luck as you expand as you can. At one time I thought it was impossible. It was part of life's journey.
Curious which 7 you met?
Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and W. Bush is my guess.
I have met Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, and Obama. I also met Lady Bird, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Hillary Clinton. Fun memories!
@kga said:
JBK, good for you. I have met 7 Presidents in person and obtained some autographs that way. I started collecting when I was young. It is fun collecting them. Good luck as you expand as you can. At one time I thought it was impossible. It was part of life's journey.
Curious which 7 you met?
Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and W. Bush is my guess.
I have met Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, and Obama. I also met Lady Bird, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Hillary Clinton. Fun memories!
I was close. Cool you met all of them. I bet you got all their autographs!
Here are just a couple of my personal encounters. I saw Reagan four times over the years, but the last 1990 visit he gave me one of the signed post-it notes that he carried in his post Presidential years. These are photos I took.
@kga said:
Here are just a couple of my personal encounters. I saw Reagan four times over the years, but the last 1990 visit he gave me one of the signed post-it notes that he carried in his post Presidential years. These are photos I took.
Those are awesome. I would LOVE to see the autographs you got too.
Back to some Supreme Court autographs. As I mentioned, I decided to focus on the Chief Justices and their legacies in history. I will show some autographs from my collection and a twist I took. I contacted descendants of the Chief Justices and asked them to write about their relative. Here are some examples I collected. John Jay Jay descendant John Marshall Marshall descendant William Howard Taft Gov. Bob Taft Great Grandson
Very neat idea and great responses. I noticed some kept their names in line of their descendants.
I just now oddly remembered I met, I think either great grandson or great great grandson, of William Howard Taft. I don’t know if it’s the one you got a note from or a different descendant. I was probably a teenager at the time, and I was at the hospital for the day and wanted to pass the time, so I hung out with this kid who was about 9 and while we talked he mentioned he was the great, or great great, grandson of President Taft. I found it very interesting but at the time I knew very little about Taft (other than that he was a President). We played games and colored while we waited for hours. I don’t recall if he knew or said anything about Taft or what his family was like. I do remember he didn’t think he was famous or anything because he went to regular schools and all.
@JMS1223 said:
Very neat idea and great responses. I noticed some kept their names in line of their descendants.
I just now oddly remembered I met, I think either great grandson or great great grandson, of William Howard Taft. I don’t know if it’s the one you got a note from or a different descendant. I was probably a teenager at the time, and I was at the hospital for the day and wanted to pass the time, so I hung out with this kid who was about 9 and while we talked he mentioned he was the great, or great great, grandson of President Taft. I found it very interesting but at the time I knew very little about Taft (other than that he was a President). We played games and colored while we waited for hours. I don’t recall if he knew or said anything about Taft or what his family was like. I do remember he didn’t think he was famous or anything because he went to regular schools and all.
It is always to fun to make a connection to history.
Today I got a response to a letter I wrote to Ketanji Brown Jackson from the Supreme Court. First thing I noticed is they sent the response to my full name. I signed my first and middle initials with my last name on the letter and envelope to KBJ so they must had looked up my address or something in a database to find my full name. Inside I found a note typed on her Chambers Card with what I believe is her new autopen. I will have to wait and see what becomes of the small photo I sent her to see if that is also going to be autopen. This note was a generic response so I am thinking it might not necessarily be her typical response to all correspondence. If something is sent to her, perhaps it will be authentic.
Glad to have this response since it’s on her new Supreme Court stationary. Another thing of note is the gold embossed eagle instead of the blind embossed eagles that were typically found on Chambers Cards and correspondence. This gold eagle starting appearing with Amy Coney Barrett (all her correspondence has been autopen as far as I know). I have never seen any correspondence from Brett Kavanaugh at all (which surprises me). Neil Gorsuch used the blind eagle on his correspondence when he started. So I think this gold eagle is new since at least 2020, but maybe earlier.
It is smaller than the very rare authentic examples I have seen. So, that might be another indication of autopen.
I think I got a generally similar generic (no name of the recipient) card from Sotomayor when she got on the court and that had an authentic signature. But a few conditions suggest KBJ has already adopted the autopen.
@JBK said:
It's definitely ink and not printed, correct?
It is smaller than the very rare authentic examples I have seen. So, that might be another indication of autopen.
I think I got a generally similar generic (no name of the recipient) card from Sotomayor when she got on the court and that had an authentic signature. But a few conditions suggest KBJ has already adopted the autopen.
Definitely ink. The photo I posted doesn’t show it very well but when I looked at it in the light I could tell it was in pen. I can see shakiness and no dashing off at the end points of signature so I am fairly confident this one is autopen.
I saw some of those early Sotomayor printed examples so perhaps KBJ will sign authentic on occasion like Sotomayor later did (but now appears she stopped a few years ago). We shall see what happens with KBJ.
Comments
JMS, the Nixon impeachment tickets can be found through political dealers. They are a bit pricey $500-800. Many Presidential collectors add them to their collections. The second Trump impeachment was different in many ways. John Roberts refused to preside because he didn't believe it was his Constitutional place since Trump was no longer in office. I think the second trial came along fast and they turned to plastic useable passes - similar to what VIP guests may receive in their offices. It will be interesting to see what the Senate offices may do in the future with any future impeachment. I saw one dealer had a plastic pass from the Trump 2nd trial and was selling it for over $2500. Too rich for most blood. Without the Chief Justice presiding, I see the second trial as an unusual point of history, but not equal with others in history. Just my opinion.
I would love to see an image of that pass if you can find one.
Another more obscure collectable is the card that Senators used to submit questions to the Chief Justice who presided over the trial.
I got one (unused, of course) from a senator's office during the Clinton impeachment.
I bought one from Trump's second impeachment on ebay for $40 or so - a huge bargain in my opinion. Now I just need one from the first trial.
I was browsing eBay and saw one or two of these. Both going for over $100.
When you requested impeachment tickets and/or these cards from Senators, did you ask during or after the trials? Do you send a letter simply requesting a ticket or is there other procedure? I want to know in the event another impeachment happens so I can try to get one.
JBK all good points. Yes, I am sure COVID had something to do with preparing or not preparing tickets during the 2nd trial. The plastic passes could be "cleaned" each time. I am trying to obtain an image of one of the plastic passes, but have not found it yet.
Yes I also have some of the "question cards." The senators fill them out to raise questions during the trial. The official ones used during the trial go to the National Archives for posterity. The unused tickets make it out to the market.
I always attempt to get impeachment tickets from my Senator's office. I have found the political junkie collectors on the staff of the various Senators, usually get them. I just have not had success in that way, but glad others have been able to get tickets that way. The Trump tickets from 2020 were limited in quantity and the trial was short, so the price on the secondary market was quite high.
The Andrew Johnson impeachment tickets were printed in various colors for the different days they were issued. The red tickets during the Clinton trial were red for the press. The public passes were yellow. The Trump passes were yellow and blue and maybe other colors, I am not sure. They did have a Senate seal that was printed as a monogram type image in the background.
For the political junkies: Though not an official impeachment pass, some are considering the on-going "Jan. 6th House Hearing" as the 3rd "unofficial" impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Here is one of the public passes for this on-going hearing.
After the trial is too late. I waited until a week or two prior to the start of the trial to start asking. If you ask too soon, the tickets aren't even on their radar yet.
That's amazing. I'll have to try for one of those.
Good to know. Thanks. I will send letter as soon as I know there is a trial or until a week or two prior.
Just for fun, here are a few of the "creative" fantasy Trump impeachment tickets created during the Trump impeachment frenzy. Beware that none of these ticket designs are authentic.
Very interesting.
There was one on ebay at the time that I almost bought before they sold out (it might have been the first one above, patterned after the Clinton ticket, minus the signature on the front.)
The Pelosi-signed one is a little controversial since it might arguably be a forged official document (that wouldn't stop me from collecting it, but I personally wouldn't create it).
One thing I noted is how different all the legitimate tickets look. I might have thought the Clinton design might become the modern standard design, but obviously not.
I agree that the Pelosi ticket could be considered a forged document, however no Government office would go after this I am sure. This one was designed after the look of the authentic House pass signed by Carl Albert. It was official but never released as Nixon resigned before the impeachment could get underway. The House brings impeachment charges and the Senate hold a trial with the Senators deciding guilt or acquittal. As a historian, I believe the recent impeachments have started a very unhealthy trend in our government. Impeachments by nature are political, but the hyper-political back in forth in the House opens the future to many more impeachments. It is likely that Biden will be impeached by the new House after the election. Here we go again . . .
The bar has certainly been lowered.
There is little reason to believe that once the new precedent was set, the other party won't respond in kind at some point.
Unfortunately, that will probably be the most significant legacy.
Makes me curious why in Andrew Johnson’s day they didn’t impeach any of the Presidents that shortly followed him. I am sure there was a lot of political division back then especially after the Civil War and during Reconstruction.
I have studied the subject a bit for educational presentations, etc. This list shows the Presidents who had impeachment moves against them from the House by various members. Most often the House Judiciary Committee did not take up the measure for consideration. History has always been contentious. Three official Presidential impeachments took place: Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump with one resignation Richard Nixon who would have been impeached and removed from office if he stayed.
My comment was cut at the end. If Nixon would have stayed for his impeachment, there would have been enough votes to remove him from office. He knew to resign.
I also thought it was interesting that Andrew Johnson was only one vote away from actually being removed from office.
Fear of Pres. pro temp Ben Wade saved Johnson, because they did not want Wade to be the Acting President.
Did not know that. Interesting.
Here is one more authentic Roberts I have in my collection. This is from the early Roberts' Court. It is only missing John Paul Stevens at the time.
Jealous. I want that!
I collect Presidential autographs, etc, and primarily focus on the Chief Justices of the United States in autographs. I have the authentic signatures of all Chief Justices from John Jay through John Roberts - less John Rutledge who is very rare and expensive. Have you seen this set of Chief Justice figures? It is a display piece of my Supreme Court collection.
A man named John Boos was the inspiration for my Lincoln Project. In his day he sent copies of the Gettysburg Address to notable people of his time and asked them to write a comment. I was able to get this piece for my collection. Chief Justice Charles Hughes added his comment. One of my favorites.
Amazing you have all the Chief Justices autographs minus one. Must had taken years to find and get all those. Quite amazing you got TWO John Roberts. Lucky you!
Never knew about John Rutledge’s rarity but now I am curious about him - is he rarer than Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh are going to be (assuming their signing habits don’t change). I know they are not Chief Justices but still will be interesting how they will compare in rarity.
That’s a really cool set of figures. I know they have those Supreme Court statues of the recent Justices (and maybe some older ones) that are exclusive to those that get the official Supreme Court newsletter. I don’t collect them (WAY too expensive) but they are interesting.
That is VERY neat! I love when I find cool historical tie ins like that. That might very well be a one of a kind as the only Gettysburg address signed by Charles Hughes.
JMS I decided long ago to just focus on obtaining the Chief Justices. I agree Barrett and Kavanaugh are modern rarities, along with John Roberts. In the Chief Justice relm of autographs John Rutledge is rare and expensive. I had a chance to pick up an authentic Rutledge one time for $2500, but passed because of the high money. I still have hopes one day to get him. I have every Presidential signature and all the Chief Justices but the one. It took a lifetime to get them. When I was working it was a way to invest for the future. Now I am retired and just enjoy the collections.
This is another favorite from my collection. Sorry it is not the best scan. Salmon P. Chase was quite full of himself and he liked to sign quotes for autograph seekers. The Chief Justice wrote:
He was on a $10,000 bill. No this is only a small reproduction. The autograph quote is real and authentic.
A complete presidential collection is one I wished I had put together years ago before some got very expensive.
I have gotten 10 presidents myself (almost all as future or former president), with two being handwritten letters. I inherited a few others (19th century and also FDR) and purchased a few more.
I only have three (FDR, Clinton and Obama) currently. Very sad I know but I only restarted collecting a year and a half ago. In my former collection I had at least 8 different Presidents (Eisenhower, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, W. Bush and Obama) at one time.
Sorry for all the edits. I forgot about a few.
JBK, good for you. I have met 7 Presidents in person and obtained some autographs that way. I started collecting when I was young. It is fun collecting them. Good luck as you expand as you can. At one time I thought it was impossible. It was part of life's journey.
JMS keep going! Collecting history is so much fun!
Curious which 7 you met?
Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and W. Bush is my guess.
I have met Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, and Obama. I also met Lady Bird, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Hillary Clinton. Fun memories!
I was close. Cool you met all of them. I bet you got all their autographs!
Here are just a couple of my personal encounters. I saw Reagan four times over the years, but the last 1990 visit he gave me one of the signed post-it notes that he carried in his post Presidential years.
These are photos I took.
Those are awesome. I would LOVE to see the autographs you got too.
Okay, here are some I can share:
Nixon 
Ford 
Reagan 
Clinton 
Obama
It is always fun meeting a President or future President.
Those are AWESOME! I am guessing Nixon was ttm since you didn’t actually meet him?
True, I never met Nixon in person. I worked through his staff at his office through the mail.
Back to some Supreme Court autographs. As I mentioned, I decided to focus on the Chief Justices and their legacies in history. I will show some autographs from my collection and a twist I took. I contacted descendants of the Chief Justices and asked them to write about their relative. Here are some examples I collected.
John Jay 
Jay descendant 
John Marshall 
Marshall descendant 
William Howard Taft 
Gov. Bob Taft Great Grandson
I will show two more in next comment
Two more:
Charles Evans Hughes 
Ken Hughes G. Grandson 
Earl Warren 
Robert Warren - he kindly sent me a clipped autograph from his father.
Very neat idea and great responses. I noticed some kept their names in line of their descendants.
I just now oddly remembered I met, I think either great grandson or great great grandson, of William Howard Taft. I don’t know if it’s the one you got a note from or a different descendant. I was probably a teenager at the time, and I was at the hospital for the day and wanted to pass the time, so I hung out with this kid who was about 9 and while we talked he mentioned he was the great, or great great, grandson of President Taft. I found it very interesting but at the time I knew very little about Taft (other than that he was a President). We played games and colored while we waited for hours. I don’t recall if he knew or said anything about Taft or what his family was like. I do remember he didn’t think he was famous or anything because he went to regular schools and all.
It is always to fun to make a connection to history.
My aunt's ex-husband (is he still my uncle? 🤔 ) was relayed to Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.
I added sugar to my tea one day with one of Taney's monogrammed silver spoons.
Today I got a response to a letter I wrote to Ketanji Brown Jackson from the Supreme Court. First thing I noticed is they sent the response to my full name. I signed my first and middle initials with my last name on the letter and envelope to KBJ so they must had looked up my address or something in a database to find my full name. Inside I found a note typed on her Chambers Card with what I believe is her new autopen. I will have to wait and see what becomes of the small photo I sent her to see if that is also going to be autopen. This note was a generic response so I am thinking it might not necessarily be her typical response to all correspondence. If something is sent to her, perhaps it will be authentic.
Glad to have this response since it’s on her new Supreme Court stationary. Another thing of note is the gold embossed eagle instead of the blind embossed eagles that were typically found on Chambers Cards and correspondence. This gold eagle starting appearing with Amy Coney Barrett (all her correspondence has been autopen as far as I know). I have never seen any correspondence from Brett Kavanaugh at all (which surprises me). Neil Gorsuch used the blind eagle on his correspondence when he started. So I think this gold eagle is new since at least 2020, but maybe earlier.
It's definitely ink and not printed, correct?
It is smaller than the very rare authentic examples I have seen. So, that might be another indication of autopen.
I think I got a generally similar generic (no name of the recipient) card from Sotomayor when she got on the court and that had an authentic signature. But a few conditions suggest KBJ has already adopted the autopen.
Definitely ink. The photo I posted doesn’t show it very well but when I looked at it in the light I could tell it was in pen. I can see shakiness and no dashing off at the end points of signature so I am fairly confident this one is autopen.
I saw some of those early Sotomayor printed examples so perhaps KBJ will sign authentic on occasion like Sotomayor later did (but now appears she stopped a few years ago). We shall see what happens with KBJ.
Here is one of the early Sotomayor examples she sent when first confirmed and on the court.
That's a great one on her prior court letterhead pending her SC confirmation.
The generic but signed on I got was on her SC note card.
Here's my KBJ thank you card that arrived today.
It confirms autopen.