Clerkships, Feeder Judges, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Clerks

Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Ranking The Non-Traditional Feeder Judges

Which state-court and federal district judges send their clerks to the U.S. Supreme Court?

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When we last discussed Supreme Court clerks in these pages, we talked about where they go after their SCOTUS clerkships (specifically, the growing number of them going to Capitol Hill; although note the dissenting voices saying this isn’t a new thing). Today let’s talk about a topic that’s of keen interest to ambitious law students and young lawyers: where Supreme Court clerks work before their high-court clerkships, i.e., the types of lower-court judges with the reputations and connections to “feed” their clerks to the justices — aka “feeder judges.”

Last year, we shared with you a list of the nation’s top feeder judges from October Term 2009 through October Term 2013. The list could be updated based on October Term 2014 and October Term 2015 (and maybe we’ll do that someday), but it wouldn’t look terribly different. You’d still see a list dominated by federal appeals court judges, with heavy representation from the D.C. and Ninth Circuits. Of the 13 judges on last year’s list — prepared by Justice David Stras of the Minnesota Supreme Court, himself a former SCOTUS clerk — five of the judges are from the D.C. Circuit and four are from the Ninth Circuit (including my former boss, the fabulous Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain). The remaining four feeders are from the Second, Fourth, Sixth, and Tenth Circuits.

Readers have recently written to us to inquire: what about non-traditional feeder judges, e.g., feeder judges from district courts or from state courts? Looking at the five Terms for which we have complete, official clerk rosters — October Term 2011 through October Term 2015 — here are all the district judges we believe to have sent more than one clerk to SCOTUS in this five-year period. (Please let us know of any errors you notice.)

1. Jed S. Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.): 8

2. (tie) James E. Boasberg (D.D.C.): 4

2. (tie) Gary S. Feinerman (N.D. Ill.): 4

4. Denise L. Cote (S.D.N.Y.): 3

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5. (tie) Charles Breyer (N.D. Cal.): 2

5. (tie) John Gleeson (E.D.N.Y.): 2

5. (tie) Richard J. Sullivan (S.D.N.Y.): 2

5. (tie) Myron H. Thompson (M.D. Ala.): 2

UPDATE (8:15 p.m.): Add John D. Bates (D.D.C.), with two clerks during this period: Graham Phillips (OT 2014/Roberts) and (Aaron Pennekamp (OT 2015/Breyer OT15).

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UPDATE (8/21/2015, 2:15 p.m.): Add Douglas P. Woodlock (D. Mass.), with two clerks during this period: Mark Musico (OT 2014/Ginsburg) and Ilana Gelfman (OT 2014/Breyer).

Note that this list doesn’t include the October Term 2016 class, which is not yet complete (as you can see below). So it doesn’t reflect the fast-growing feeding power of Judge Amul Roger Thapar (E.D. Ky.), who has one clerk in OT 2015 and two clerks in OT 2016.

The other district judges whose OT 2016 feeds aren’t reflected in the list above are Judge Rakoff (two clerks), Judge Charles Breyer (one clerk), and Judge Royce Lamberth (one clerk). Judge Rakoff, of course, has his famous “tag team” arrangement with Chief Judge Robert Katzmann (2d Cir.). Judge Breyer is the brother of Justice Stephen Breyer (but note that not all of Judge Breyer’s clerks go to Justice Breyer).

Now, on to state judges and their status as feeder judges (the subject of a subplot in Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link)). Here is what one tipster shared with us:

I know you regularly highlight federal appellate feeder judges, and even have mentioned new federal district court feeder judges. But one type of feeder judge you’re overlooking are state supreme court feeder judges. By my count, there are currently five:

Thomas Lee (UT): fed to Thomas (2014).

Goodwin Liu (CA): fed to Sotomayor (2014) and Ginsburg (2014).

Daniel Winfree (AK): fed to Scalia (2014).

Margaret Marshall (MA): fed to Breyer (2011).

Allison H. Eid (CO): fed to Thomas (2013).

Any others that this source might have missed? If so, email us or text us (646-820-8477), and we’ll update. (Please include the words “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring” in your email or text message, perhaps as the subject line of your email or the first words of your text, because that’s how we locate these tips in our inundated inbox.)

Now, on to the list, updated with the latest hires. Here are the OT 2016 hires we are currently aware of. Please drop us a line with any errors or omissions. Thanks!

OCTOBER TERM 2016 SUPREME COURT CLERK HIRES (as of August 20, 2015)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts
1. Marguerite Colson (Yale 2015 / Kavanaugh)
2. Rachel Miller-Ziegler (Harvard 2015 / Garland)
3. Conor Reardon (Duke 2014 / Cabranes / Chatigny (D. Conn.))
4. ?

Justice Antonin Scalia
1. Nicole Frazer (Virginia 2015 / Sutton)
2. Nick Harper (Chicago 2015 / Kavanaugh)
3. Greg Miller (Berkeley 2012 / Thapar (E.D. Ky.) / E. Carnes)
4. Sean Mirski (Harvard 2015 / Kavanaugh)

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
1. Alex Harris (Harvard 2015 / Gorsuch)
2. William Perdue (Yale 2011 / Katzmann / Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.))
3. J.J. Snidow (Yale 2014 / Kethledge / Thapar (E.D. Ky.))
4. ?

Justice Clarence Thomas
1. Austin Raynor (UVA 2013 / Wilkinson)
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1. Subash Iyer (NYU 2013 / Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.) / Katzmann)
2. Hajin Kim (Stanford 2014 / Watford)
3. Beth Neitzel (Stanford 2013 /D. Motz (4th Cir.) / Tatel)
4. Parker Rider-Longmaid (Penn 2013 / Scirica / Pratter (E.D. Pa.) / Bristow Fellow)

Justice Stephen G. Breyer
1. Daniel Herz-Roiphe (Yale 2015 / Garland)
2. Denise Lambert Drake (Stanford 2013 / Higginbotham / C. Breyer)
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Samuel Alito
1. ?
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Sonia Sotomayor
1. Tiffany Wright (Georgetown 2013 / Lamberth (D.D.C.) / Tatel)
2. ?
3. ?
4. ?

Justice Elena Kagan
1. Elizabeth Bewley (Harvard 2015 / Griffith)
2. Gerard Cedrone (Harvard 2014 / Gorsuch)
3. Ben Eidelson (Yale 2014 / Garland)
4. Betsy Henthorne (Georgetown 2014 / Furman G. Woods (S.D.N.Y.) / Srinivasan)

(A. Zoe Bedell (Harvard 2016 / Kavanaugh) and Ephraim McDowell (Harvard 2016 / Garland) have been hired for October Term 2017.)

Justice John Paul Stevens (retired)
1. Teresa Reed (Stanford 2015 / Millett)

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (retired):
1. ?

Justice David H. Souter (retired):
1. ?

Do you know about a hire we haven’t reported yet, or do you have an addition or correction to any of this info? Please email us or text us (646-820-8477). Please include the words “SCOTUS Clerk Hiring” in your email or text message, perhaps as the subject line of your email or the first words of your text, because that’s how we locate these tips in our inundated inbox. Thanks!

Supreme Ambitions [Amazon (affiliate link)]

Earlier: A New Trend Among Supreme Court Clerks?
Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Who Is NOT Retiring From SCOTUS?
Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch: Shout-Outs From Justice Kagan, And The Leading ‘Feeder Firm’
Prior ATL coverage of Supreme Court law clerks

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