Twenty years ago, as Supreme Court justices were deciding cases that tested college affirmative action, a ban on same-sex relations and a “three-strikes” law that put convicts in prison for life, their elite young law clerks were growing agitated and divided.
Some conservative clerks stopped eating lunch with their liberal counterparts and abandoned weekly “happy hours.” Even a benefit Jell-O-eating contest (no hands) generated ideological discord over the charity groups selected for the money raised.
Today, many of the 35 clerks from that contentious session, two decades into their own careers, are at the center of America’s most incendiary legal battles. The ideological fault lines from their time at the court are today shaping constitutional law and US politics.
A one-year post as a Supreme Court clerk has long been a ticket to power, influence and wealth. Law firms offer signing bonuses of $450,000 to former clerks, most of whom come from Ivy League and other top-tier law schools.
It may be money well spent. Former Supreme Court clerks fill the highest echelons of the judiciary. Studies have shown that the justices are more likely to take an appeal if filed by a former clerk than by someone who never worked for a justice.
Former President Donald Trump chose former Supreme Court clerks for all three of his appointments to the high court. And of his total 54 US appellate appointments, 21 nominees were Supreme Court clerks, which is a modern record of nearly 40%.
Of the many players who variously inhabit the court’s ecosystem – top lawyers, esteemed professors and prominent commentators – former clerks play an enormous role. Their time at the court was formative, not just for the connections they made, but as it informed their future cases and roles in America’s culture clashes.
For the class…
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