Are Supreme Court Clerk Feeders (Almost) All White Men?
posted by Dan Filler
I’m in St. Louis in preparation for a conference (the official title: Life and Death Decisions
Prosecutorial Discretion and Capital Punishment in Missouri) built around an interesting new study by David Sloss (SLU), Kathie Barnes (Wash U.) and Stephen Thaman (SLU). Tonight, in preparation for nothing in particular, Doug Berman, Margo Schlanger and I noodled over the question: are any of the most successful Supreme Court clerk feeder judges women? One that came to mind was Judith Rogers. I’m not sure whether any of the other DC Circuit Judges – like Henderson or Brown – have had similar success. What about Judge Jones on the Fifth Circuit? Similarly: are there any African-American judges who are frequent feeders? (I guess that depends in part on whether Harry Edwards still has the touch.) Finally, and less relatedly, are there any district court judges that send their clerks straight to the Big Time? All these questions are surely answerable – I just don’t have the answers. Comments appreciated!
March 2, 2007 at 12:26 am
Posted in: Law School
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Responses (6)
anonymous - March 2, 2007 at 10:49 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_law_clerks_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States
This site is pretty accurate, though not complete. According to it, Edith Jones has placed at least seven of her former clerks on the Supreme Court.
Judith Rogers doesn’t seem to have a similar record, nor does Henderson. Although both are on the DC Circuit, not all of those judges are feeders.
Patricia Wald used to be one of the prime “feeder” judges, though she’s no longer a judge.
Deanell Tacha on the 10th has “fed” a few to the Supreme Court.
Diane Wood has placed at least one.
Early indications are that Janice Rogers Brown might do the same, but she’s just getting started.
With the possible exception of Patricia Wald, none of these judges “feeds” as regularly as Wilkinson, Luttig, Garland, Boudin, Sentelle, Leval, Tatel, O’Scannlain, Kozinski, etc.
To answer your other question, no district judges that I’m aware of are “feeders.” Gerard Lynch (SDNY) and Louis Pollak (EDPa) are the closest district court judges come to being considered “feeders,” afaik.
anonymous - March 2, 2007 at 10:50 am
I neglected to mention that Amalya Kearse (CA2) has also passed a lot of her clerks to the Supremes, and continues to do so.
clerk - March 2, 2007 at 1:49 pm
The first person who comes to mind for me is Betty Fletcher.
Anon - March 2, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I believe that Jack Weinstein (EDNY) has sent one or more clerks to the High Court.
anon - March 3, 2007 at 9:30 am
Judge Oberdorfer (D.D.C.) sent some clerks to the Supremes. With respect to Judge G. Lynch, if I’m not mistaken, the clerks that he’s sent to the Court have done an appellate clerkship either before or after clerking for him.
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