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 Associate Justice is permitted to employ four law clerks per Court term; the Chief Justice may employ five. 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 4 (the Court's fourth associate justice seat by the
order of precedence of the inaugural associate justices[a]) which was established on September 24, 1789 by the
1st Congress through the
Judiciary Act of 1789 (1
Stat.73).[4] This seat is currently occupied by Justice
Elena Kagan.
^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.
Baier, Paul R. (1973). "The Law Clerks: Profile of an Institution," Vanderbilt L. Rev. 26: 1125–77.
"Finding Aid to the Papers of William O. Douglas,"
Library of Congress (2014, rev'd Dec. 2014), p. 138, list of clerks.
Freund, Paul A., "Historical Reminiscence, Justice Brandeis: A Law Clerk's Remembrance", 68 Am. Jewish Hist. 7 (1978).
"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.
Mason, Alpheus T. (1946). Brandeis: a Free Man's Life. New York, NY: Viking Press. List of law clerks, p. 690.
ISBN1199565091,
ISBN978-1199565099.
Mersky, Roy M. (1958). Louis Dembitz Brandeis, 1856–1941: a Bibliography. List of law clerks, p. 11 (New Haven, CT: Published for the Yale Law Library by the Yale Law School)(44 pp).
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.
ISBN978-0814794203,
ISBN0814794203.