Law clerks have assisted the justices of the
United States Supreme Court in various capacities since the first one was hired by Justice
Horace Gray in 1882.[1] Each justice is permitted to have between three and four law clerks per Court term. Most persons serving in this capacity are recent
law school graduates (and typically graduated at the top of their class).[2] Among their many functions, clerks do legal research that assists justices in deciding what cases to accept and what questions to ask during oral arguments, prepare
memoranda, and draft
orders and
opinions.[3] After retiring from the Court, a justice may continue to employ a law clerk, who may be assigned to provide additional assistance to an active justice or may assist the retired justice when sitting by designation with a lower court.
Table of law clerks
The following is a table of law clerks serving the
associate justice holding Supreme Court seat 6 (the Court's sixth associate justice seat by order of creation), which was established on February 24, 1807, by the
9th Congress through the
Seventh Circuit Act of 1807 (2
Stat.420).[4] This seat is currently occupied by Justice
Amy Coney Barrett.
^Ward, Artemus; Weiden, David L. (2006). Sorcerers' Apprentices: 100 Years of Law Clerks at the United States Supreme Court. New York, New York: New York University Press. pp. 1–5.
ISBN978-0-8147-9404-3.
^Kluger, Richard (2004). Simple Justice: The History of Brown v. Board of Education and Black America's Struggle for Equality. Vintage Books. p. 598.
ISBN978-1-4000-3061-3.
Additional sources
Baier, Paul R. (1973). "The Law Clerks: Profile of an Institution," Vanderbilt L. Rev. 26: 1125–77.
Boskey, Bennett, "Justice Reed and His Family of Law Clerks," 69 Ky. L. J. 869 (1980–81).
"Georgia Law Alumni Who Have Clerked for a U.S. Supreme Court Justice,"
Advocate, Spring/Summer 2004 (listing 6 names).
Judicial Clerkship Handbook,
USC Gould Law School, 2013–2014, p. 33, Appendix B.
Newland, Charles A. (June 1961). "Personal Assistants to the Supreme Court Justices: The Law Clerks," Oregon L. Rev. 40: 306–07.
Ward, Artemus and David L. Weiden (2006). Sorcerers' Apprentices: 100 Years of Law Clerks at the United States Supreme Court. New York, NY: New York University Press.
ISBN978-0-8147-9420-3,
ISBN978-0-8147-9420-3.